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BRIEF HISTORY OF 
MODERN EUROPE 



jFotmDatton l£tetotg Series 

BRIEF HISTORY OF 
MODERN EUROPE 

FROM 1814 TO THE GREAT WAR 



BY 

WILLIAM GLOVER 




YONKERS-ON-HUDSON : : : NEW YORK 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
1922 



WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE 



Established 1905 by Caspar W. Hodgson 



YoNKERS-ON-HuDSON, NEW YORK 



2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 



y 



The publishers' aim in Foundation History 
Series is to present a set of easy textbooks 
which will give the leading movements of 
history in concise yet readable form for use 
in grades below the high school. The fol- 
lowing list will from time to time receive 
important additions. 

FOUNDATION HISTORY SERIES 

By Henry W. Elson and Cornelia E. MacMuUan 

THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY: Book I 

Cloth, viii + 216 pages Illustrated. From the 
period of discovery to end of the Revolutionary War. 

THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY: Book II 
Cloth, viii + 283 pages. Illustrated. From the 
end of the Revolutionary War to the election of 
President Wilson. 

THE STORY OF THE OLD WORLD 

Cloth, viii + 248 pages. Illustrated. An account 
of those periods or events in European history that 
have direct and easily traceable bearing upon the 
development of the American republic. 

By J. B. Neicman 

BEGINNERS' ANCIENT HISTORY 

Cloth. 176 pages. Illustrated. From earliest times 
to about A. D. 1000. 

BEGINNERS' MODERN HISTORY 

Cloth. 160 pages. Illustrated. From about a. D. 
1000 to the end of the Great War. 

By William Glover 

BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Cloth. 232 pages. Illustrated. From 181k to the 
Great War. 

S4o 3 
■ •« ^3 



COPYRIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN 
All rights reserved 

PRINTED IN U. 8. A. 
GBHME— 1 



r 



PREFACE 



IS Egypt in Europe or in Asia? Why do such a patri- 
otic people as the Russians cling to an alien religion, 
that of the Greek Church? Where and what is 
Poland? Is it really true that a great many of the 
inhabitants of Austria cannot speak the Austrian language? 
What is the good of learning the names, capitals, and 
boundaries of the ever-changing Balkan States? Are 
German bands typical examples of' German musical 
Kultur? 

Before the Great War sent us to our maps and our 
books of history, questions such as these were by no 
means uncommon, even in highly respectable society; 
for up to that time we were more interested in the towns, 
cities, and regions of our own country than in those of 
Europe. 

Now, however, we have opened our eyes and see that 
to take an interest in the nations of Europe is really quite 
worth while. Whether we like it or not, we must live on 
terms of relationship with our neighbors, even though 
large bodies of water separate us from them. So, though 
possibly late in the day, we have come to study the ways 
of other nations with a view to understanding the char- 
acters and conditions of the people who compose them. 

In this little book the author has tried to give what 
he believes is needed for pupils in the upper classes in 
grammar schools or the lower classes in high schools — a 

5 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

plain, simple, straightforward narrative of European 
events, consecutive as far as possible, with some side 
lights on motives, manners, and customs, a few conclu- 
sions which perhaps deserve to be driven home, and one 
or two reflections that may tend to stimulate further 
thought. 

W. G. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

1 An Introduction which should not be 
Skipped 

II A Great Opportunity 

III The Use that was made of it — I 

IV The Use that was made of it — II 

V The Swing of the Pendulum — Forward 

VI The Swing of the Pendulum — Backward 
VII * The Troubles of 1S30 

VIII The French Revolution of 1848 

IX The German Revolutions of 1848 

X The Austrian Revolutions of 1848 

XI The Italian Revolutions of 1848 

XII Napoleon III 

XIII The Crimean War 

XIV The Unification of Italy 

XV Bismarck's Threefold Plan. Stage I : 
Beginnings of Prussian Expansion 

XVI Bismarck's Threefold Plan. Stage II : 
The Expulsion of Austria 

XVII Bismarck's Threefold Plan. Stage III : 
Mistakes of Napoleon 

XVIII Bismarck's Threefold Plan. Stage III : 
The Franco-Prussian War and the 
Consolidation of Germany 



PAQB 

9 
14 
19 

24 
31 
36 
41 
50 
59 
64 
71 
77 
82 
91 

100 

105 

111 



117 

7 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

CHAPTER PA0E 

XIX After the Franco-Prussian War 125 

XX The Eastern Question 132 

XXI The Russo-Turkish War and the 

Treaty of Berlin 137 

XXII Later Balkan Developments 143 

XXIII The Triple Alliance 152 

XXIV The Triple Entente 157 
XXV The Far East 164 

XXVI Britain in Egypt 171 

XXVII The Partition of Africa 180 

XXVIII The Great War of 1914-1918 : What 

led to it 187 

XXIX The Great War of 1914-1918 : Its 

Course — I 194 

XXX The Great War of 1914-1918 : Its 

Course— II 207 

XXXI The Peace Conference 222 



MAPS 

Europe after the Congress of Vienna in 1814 29 

Race Map of Austria-Hungary, etc., in ]848 65 

South-Eastern Europe, 1920 85 

Italy, 1920 97 

Germany after 1871 123 

The Far East 165 

Egypt 173 

Africa, 1920 185 

Middle Europe before the Great Wab 195 

The Gallipoli Peninsula 201 

The Pan-German Plan 203 
8 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF 
MODERN EUROPE 



CHAPTER I 

AN INTRODUCTION WHICH SHOULD NOT 
BE SKIPPED 

WHAT is meant by ' modern ' European 
history ? To that question different people 
would doubtless give different answers. 
We, however, in this little book, will take 
the term * modern ' to indicate the period between 
1815 and 1915. 

In one sense, it is of course impossible to write a 
satisfactory history of any particular period — just as 
it is impossible to write a satisfactory history of a parti- 
cular day in a man's life. For the day has its roots in 
the many days that have gone before ; and the period, 
too, has its roots in the many periods that have gone 
before ; and so both day and period lose much of 
their meaning if we treat them as mere fragments 
of the present and ignore their relations with the 
past. 

To take an illustration, we might liken history to 
a web of cloth, the weaving of which began at the 
Creation and will end only with the end of the world. 
Periods are like little pieces snipped out of the web ; 
and each thread in the piece snipped out runs right back 
to the beginning, and will only end with the end, of all 
things. 

But the web is by no means uniform. Indeed, Time, 
the great weaver, now and then changes his pattern in 

9 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

most sudden and startling fashion — so sudden and so 
startling that he seems to be trying his hand upon an 
entirely new and different material. One of these 
abrupt breaks in continuity occurred in 1815, and of this 
fact we take advantage. But we must be careful to 
bear in mind that the break is not, after all, complete ; 
for, in spite of great changes, our period is inseparably 
joined to the past; and so from time to time we must 
look back to note some of the past causes that have 
combined to produce present effects. With this warning 
we may now proceed to our story. 

Europe in the Melting-pot. — In the closing months of 
the year 1814 it appeared as though the star of the 
great Napoleon had set; for the Terror of Europe had 
been banished to the island of Elba. But what was to 
come next ? Certainly no more fighting ; on that point 
everybody was agreed ; for by this time the nations of 
Europe were thoroughly and heartily sick of the long 
and terrible wars that had cost them so much blood and 
treasure. Moreover, there was no call for fighting, as 
not only was the arch-enemy, whose genius had raised 
and inspired mighty armies, now in captivity, but the 
mighty armies with which he had hoped to realize his 
dream of world-empire lay shattered and broken. With 
Napoleon in exile, and the power of France crushed, 
peace was possible ; and the nations determined to have 
it. But on what terms ? 

Iron will take the shape of any mould into which it is 
run in a liquid state. Napoleon had broken the Con- 
tinent into what we may compare to a heap of scrap- 
iron ; and this was now, as it were, to be flung into the 
melting-pot of a great Congress that should decide the 
fate of many nations. Into what mould would liquid 
Europe be run ? Into one that was based on natural 
lines, and was therefore strong and shapely ? Or into 
one that was based on artificial distinctions, and was 
therefore weak and ugly ? In the former case, the 
10 



AN INTRODUCTION 

settlement of European affairs might be expected to be 
lasting and peaceful ; in the latter, change and trouble 
would probably soon ensue. 

On November 1, 1814, representatives of the Powers 
met at Vienna, and proceeded to reconstruct Napoleon's 
Europe. It was a great task ; and if the representatives 
had all been great men — men of far-seeing wisdom, 
filled with noble unselfishness, and resolute in the carry- 
ing out of their great intentions — how well that task 
might have been performed ! 

Here was a Continent ripe and ready for the great 
experiment. For hundreds of years it had, as it were, 
been ground down under the iron heel of Authority. 
" Obey your rulers, your sovereigns by divine right ; 
obey the ministers whom they, in their good pleasure, 
think proper to appoint ; and submit without a murmur 
to the form of government they see fit to institute." 
That was the code which, hitherto, comparatively few 
people had dreamt of disputing. 

Then had come the French Revolution, with its 
gospel of liberty, equality, fraternity, and the right of 
the people to rule themselves and make their own laws. 
The Age of Authority was proclaimed to be dead, or at 
least dying ; and its place had been taken by the new- 
born Age of Reason. But, unfortunately, the Age of 
Reason, like other children of tender years, did not 
always act reasonably. It pulled down a great deal 
better than it built up. Many bad features of French 
life were destroyed, but, alas ! many good ones too; and 
in place of the bad old social order, with its tyranny and 
oppression by kings and nobles, there did not come the 
hoped-for condition of gentleness and justice. More- 
over, the weapon of militarism, even though wielded by 
a Napoleon, with an intellect of the very highest type, 
had failed to impose the ideals of the Revolution upon 
nations not yet ripe for them. 

The Ideals of the French Revolution. — But though the 

11 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Revolution had failed, as yet, to embody its ideals in a 
permanent and successful form, the ideals which had 
inspired it were by no means dead ; indeed, they were 
very much alive, and a great deal more widespread than 
many of the absolute rulers liked ; and it soon became 
clear that the peoples would never again be contented 
with what had formerly satisfied them. "Two things," 
they said, " we must have : a recognition of the claims 
of nationality, and a recognition of the claims of demo- 
cracy." It would have been much better if they had 
gone a step further, and demanded a recognition of the 
claims of federation. I will say a few words about each 
of these three terms. 

First, take nationality. What do you mean by that ? 
In the eighteenth century it meant no more than the 
common tie which bound together a people in allegiance 
to their sovereign. As the sun is the centre of the solar 
system, and holds all the planets in their places by the 
power of gravitation, so the sovereign was supposed to 
be the centre of the State, which he held together by the 
bond of loyalty to himself. Indeed, some people went 
so far as to say, " Where my king is, there is my 
country"; and for them a country with the king in 
exile was like a land with the sun in eclipse. Nowa- 
days, however, nationality, as we understand it, is 
something very different from that. How shall we 
define it ? I do not think we can do better than speak 
of a nation as a people that (1) belongs to one race, 
(2) speaks one language, (3) has common sympathies, 
(4) has common material interests. When all these 
conditions are found together, the nation is really and 
truly one ; and the fewer the number of conditions 
present, the less firmly does the nation hold together. 
Race, language, sympathies, and material interests : 
these four, we may safely say, are the four chief bonds 
of national unity, and it would be difficult to say which 
is the strongest. 
12 



AN INTRODUCTION 

Second, take democracy, that is, the government of 
the people by the people — a state of affairs that, at the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, was almost un- 
known outside Britain. Sovereigns, and the ministers 
whom they appointed, did all the governing, and had 
the chief influence in making the laws ; while the people 
were so much putty to be moulded as the king and his 
ministers thought fit. With the coming of the French 
Revolution the idea of democracy took a firm and 
gradually tightening grip, not only upon France, but 
also upon many other European countries. 

Third, federation. This is a union of governments 
in which several States, while independent of each 
other in home affairs, combine for purposes common to 
all. The United States of America is a good instance 
of a federal government ; each State manages its own 
internal business, but all combine in affairs of common 
interest, such as dealings with foreign Powers and the 
defence of the whole country. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. An abrupt break in European history occurred in 
1815. Comment on this statement. 

2. Why was Europe, on the fall of Napoleon, ripe for 
reconstruction ? 

3. What were the chief ideas which lay at the roots of 
the French Revolution ? 

4. What are the chief distinguishing marks of 
nationality ? 

5. Explain the term ' democracy.' 

6. Say what is meant by ' federation.' Give as many 
examples as you can of the federal form of government. 



13 



CHAPTER II 
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 

NOW had the representatives of the Powers 
who met in 1814 at the Congress of Vienna 
been wise, unselfish, far-seeing men, what a 
fine settlement of European affairs they might 
have made ! — one, too, that, though it might not have 
pleased everybody just at first, would in the long run 
have proved more and more satisfactory ; for, being 
made on natural lines, and based upon powerful and 
widespread ideas, it would probably have lasted 
peacefully not only until now, but also far into 
the future. 

The Problems of Settlement. — The task of settlement 
would not have been easy ; on the contrary, it would 
have been very difficult indeed ; but it might have been 
performed if only the right people had been there to 
perform it. 

" Here," these wise, unselfish, far-seeing representa- 
tives — our dream-folk, we will call them — might have 
said, " Here is the Continent of Europe in a condition 
just fit and ready for treatment. How shall we 
treat it ? 

" Well, our first step shall be to divide it into States ; 
and in doing this we have determined to be guided by 
no other considerations than those of race, language, 
sympathies, and material interests. Districts of the 
same race, speaking the same language, and having 
common sympathies and material interests, shall be put 
14 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 

into one and the same State ; and if we are uncertain as 
to the rightful placing of any particular district — in 
which the people are divided on our four essential 
points — the matter shall be decided by a plebiscite, 
that is, by a vote of the whole people concerned. On 
one point, however, you may take it for granted that 
we have quite made up our minds : we will not give 
a slice of territory to any czar, emperor, king, or sove- 
reign of any kind, simply because he wants it with the 
object of increasing his own importance and that of the 
country over which he rules. 

" Next we will lay down the principle of democratic 
control, which means that the people shall not only 
make the laws under which they are to live, but shall 
also choose the machinery by which the laws are to be 
enforced ; in other words, each State shall no longer be 
regarded as the private property of dynasty, sovereign, 
or aristocracy, but as the possession of the people 
themselves. 

" But here we will sound a note of warning. The 
changes should not be too drastic ; they should be 
gradual, so as to avoid unnecessary confusion ; and each 
should be preceded by an educational campaign, in 
which the people are taught the meaning of the new 
rights and duties upon which they are about to enter. 
Some States, being better prepared for the coming con- 
ditions, will naturally adopt democratic control more 
rapidly than others. The rate of progress will thus 
vary; but everywhere it must be borne in mind what 
is the general end to be attained. 

" Lastly, for the whole of the Continent we will have 
a great Federal Government, to which delegates from 
each State shall be summoned ; and this central Federal 
Government shall deal with international affairs, that 
is, with the relations of the individual States to each 
other." 

A plan of this kind would not, of course, have given 

15 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

us a Continental paradise ; for that we shall never have 
until we can change the character of individuals, and 
people Europe with men and women of goodwill, kind 
hearts, and sound minds in sound bodies. But, if ably 
carried out, it might have been one step in the direc- 
tion of making paradise possible ; and, in any case, it 
would have saved many terrible wars. We might have 
expected from it the following results : 

1. A Europe divided into a number of States, large 
and small, each compact, and thoroughly welded 
together. 

2. Each would have been left free to develop on its 
own national lines, according, in each case, to the will 
of the people concerned. This, in itself, would have 
been a distinct world-gain. For, just as we believe that 
each individual person has some good gift which nobody 
but he possesses, and which, therefore, nobody but he 
can contribute to the welfare of the society in which he 
lives, so we believe that each individual State has some 
good gift which nobody but it possesses, and which, 
therefore, nobody but it can contribute to the welfare 
of the world. But for the perfecting of this good gift, 
it is necessary that both man and State shall be left 
free to develop on their own particular lines. 

To take a case in point, German, Russian, French, 
Belgian, and British culture each has a special mission 
to perform ; and it would be a distinct loss to the world 
if the will of some great Power were to impose its own 
culture upon one of its neighbours, and thus stamp out 
the special contribution which that neighbour might 
have made to the world's advancement. 

3. The welfare of the States as a federated whole 
would have been put under the guardianship of the 
central Federal Government. No State, no matter 
how powerful it might be, would then be permitted to 
infringe upon the liberties of even the very weakest; 
and the relations of each State to its neighbours, as well 
16 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 

as to the extra-European countries, would be regulated 
by a code of international law. 

The Enforcement of International Laws. — But sup- 
pose, some one may say, that a particular State 
should refuse to obey the ruling of the International 
Board — what then ? Well, there would be two distinct 
ways of dealing with the offender. You might " send 
him to Coventry " ; and if every other State in the 
Federation refused to trade with him, the economic 
pressure would probably very soon bring him to his 
senses and make him hand in his submission. If this 
method did not succeed — though I do not see how it 
could fail if properly applied— you might try the 
second, viz., that of direct compulsion. In the present 
state of civilization, there is no doubt that behind all 
government there must be force, downright actual 
physical force ; so that those who refuse to obey the law 
can be compelled to do so. And the Central Federal 
Government would, as a matter of course, have at its 
disposal a body of ' compellers ' — call it an International 
Army, an International Police, or any other name you 
will ; but remember that its function is to enforce the 
decisions of the Central Federal Government. This im- 
portant body would deal with international offenders; 
and as each State, being now free from the fear of 
aggression on the part of its neighbours, would have 
little or no need of a State army — and indeed would not 
be permitted to have more than quite a small one — the 
International Army would not necessarily be very large 
in order to maintain international discipline. 

But all this, perhaps you say, is a dream. Un- 
doubtedly you are right ; it is a mere dream of things 
that might have been in the year 1815 ; and, moreover, 
there would have been many difficulties in the way of 
its fulfilment. But difficulties have a way of disap- 
pearing when resolutely faced ; and the dreams of to-day 
are sometimes the realities of to-morrow. 

B 17 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. When, and for what purpose, did the Congress of 
Vienna meet ? 

2. What three steps should have been taken in order to 
place the peace of Europe on firm foundations ? 

3. Name three consequences to which these three steps 
would probably have led. 

4. Name and explain two ways of dealing with States 
which rebel against the rulings of a Central Federal 
Government. 



16 



CHAPTER III 
THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT— I 

WE now turn from dream to reality. The 
European Congress met at Vienna ; and, 
though the deliberations were interrupted 
by the escape of Napoleon from Elba, the 
Congress resumed its sittings at the end of the wonder- 
ful ' hundred days.' Vienna seemed full of famous 
personages. There were the two emperors, Francis II 
of Austria and Alexander I of Russia; there were the 
kings of Prussia, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and Denmark ; 
there were numbers of German dukes and princes ; and 
there were representatives from most of the other coun- 
tries of Europe — Castlereagh for Great Britain, Metter- 
nich for Austria, Talleyrand for France, and Consalvi 
for the Pope. 

And very fine times these famous people must have 
had ; for the Austrian capital was ablaze with splendid 
balls and magnificent banquets, so that dancing and 
feasting seemed to be the chief business that had called 
them together. In the intervals of pleasure, however, 
they found time to meet together in order to settle the 
affairs of the nations — after a fashion; and, says a close 
observer : " All Europe was then at play round a large 
green table ; kingdoms were the stakes ; and a diplo- 
matic shake of the dice might win a hundred thousand 
or a million heads." 

The Failure of the Vienna Settlement. — Now the 
members of the Congress, as a body, professed to have 

19 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

intentions that were really splendid. They stated that 
their objects were " the reconstruction of the moral 
order," " the regeneration of the political system of 
Europe," " an enduring peace founded on a just redistri- 
bution of political forces." That is to say, Europe was to 
be new-born to an order of morality and justice that should 
give abiding peace. What programme could have been 
finer than that ? Unhappily, however, the programme 
was very badly carried out ; so badly, indeed, that the 
history of the nineteenth century is largely made up of 
a long series of attempts to break up the Vienna settle- 
ment ; and a period which opened up with a vision of the 
brotherhood of man, closed on the terrible reality of a 
jumble of States armed to the teeth, and each guarding 
its own exclusive privileges as jealously as a greedy 
dog guards a bone. How was it that such a deplorable 
failure came to pass ? Chiefly, no doubt, because the 
members of the Congress, though they had brilliant 
men amongst them, were not great enough for the task 
they had undertaken. They were not great enough in 
knowledge ; for they did not understand the spirit of the 
age, and had not fully and freely grasped the new ideas 
that were to do so much toward moulding the future of 
societies and States. And they were not great enough 
in disinterestedness, most of them being zealous for the 
welfare of the State they represented, and caring little 
for the .welfare of others. In other words, they were 
not a body of men who combined deep wisdom with 
world-wide sympathies. 

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that they were, 
after all, a company of diplomatists, and, as such, keen 
at outwitting each other and snatching an advantage, 
subtle in plot and counterplot, given to secrecy and 
intrigue. Consequently they could have had little 
sympathy with the sounding phrases of their published 
program ; and, doubtless, many of them regarded 
such utterances as addressed, so to speak, to the gallery, 
20 



THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT 

and intended only to " tranquillize the peoples, and 
give to the solemn reunion an air of dignity and 
grandeur." 

With ideas such as these, the Congress set to work 
to reshape the destiny of Europe ; but before telling in 
detail how they did, or tried to do, this, it will 
be well if we make a brief survey of early Euro- 
pean history. 

A Resume' of Earlier History.— Going back a long, 
long way, we learn that in the year 27 B.C. the first 
emperor of Rome was Augustus. In the beginning 
the Roman Empire was a heathen one, and was ruled 
from Rome as a centre. About a.d. 323, however, 
the then emperor, Constantine, became a Christian ; 
and in the course of the fourth and fifth centuries the 
Roman Empire came to adopt the Christian faith ; that 
is to say, Christianity became the acknowledged State 
religion. Constantine, moreover, removed his capital 
to the old Greek city of Byzantium, now known as Con- 
stantinople, the city of Constantine. 

Through the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries 
there was only one Roman Empire, with its seat at Con- 
stantinpole, and only one Christian form of State reli- 
gion ; but then came a religious dispute which led to a 
great split, after which there were two Empires, an 
Eastern and a Western. The former was ruled by an 
emperor residing at Constantinople ; its religion was 
that form of Christianity professed by the Greek 
Church ; and the head of that religion was the Patriarch 
of Constantinople. The latter was ruled by an emperor 
residing at Rome ; its religion was that form of Chris- 
tianity professed by the Roman Church ; and the head 
of that religion was the Pope of Rome. 

We need say little about the Eastern Empire. It was 
overthrown in a.d. 1453, when the Turks captured Con- 
stantinople, and when the Greek scholars and teachers 
hitherto residing there were scattered far and wide, and, 

21 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

carrying their culture with them, laid the foundation 
for a great revival of learning in Western Europe. 

Thus the Eastern Empire fell ; but not so the religion ; 
for the Eastern or Greek Church still flourishes in 
Russia and Eastern Europe. 

The Western, or Holy Roman, Empire, with its 
special form of Christianity, lasted much longer, and 
during its existence did much to mould the nations of 
Europe into their present form. The first emperor was 
the Teutonic prince Charles the Great, who began his 
reign in a.d. 800, and the last was Francis II of Austria, 
who abdicated in 1806 ; all of them were of German 
blood ; and all endeavoured to consolidate a great part 
of Europe round Germany as a nucleus. When Francis 
II resigned, he did so chiefly, perhaps, because he found 
that the attempt at consolidation had utterly failed, 
and now seemed quite hopeless; for, instead of ruling 
over one great, united State, he found himself merely 
the nominal head of a large number of States over which 
he had little or no real control. 

The German States. — At the time of the Congress of 
Vienna, then, there was no German Empire, but only 
a number of separate and independent German States 
— over three hundred before the Napoleonic wars, but 
thirty-nine afterward. The largest of these were 
Prussia and Austria ; then came Bavaria, Saxony, 
Hanover, and Wurtemberg ; the rest were small States, 
such as Hesse, Weimar, etc. There was great rivalry 
between Prussia and Austria as to which should be the 
leader of this German group ; and there was great 
jealousy and distrust of each other among the whole of 
the thirty-nine. Though all of them doubtless felt 
that it would be advantageous if they could be united 
under one common government, they were unwilling to 
sacrifice their complete independence and their special 
privileges for the common good. One step, however, 
they took toward national unity. Each of the thirty- 
22 



THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT 

nine sent delegates to a central parliament, or Diet, at 
Frankfort, and this loose confederation was called the 
Bund ; but as the Diet had little real power beyond the 
power of making speeches, the Bund was not much of 
a bond of union after all. It is well to note, too, that 
the members of the Diet represented, and were ap- 
pointed by, not the people of the respective States, but 
the rulers. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. To what extent were the different States represented 
at the Vienna Congress ? Name a few of the represen- 
tatives, and give brief notes on the character of each. 

2. Write a short theme on " Diplomacy and Diploma- 
tists." 

3. What do you understand by the term ' national 
selfishness ' ? Illustrate your answer by reference to the 
Vienna Congress. 

4. When, and why, did the Roman Emperors remove the 
seat of government from Rome to Constantinople ? 

5. What led to the division of the Roman Empire into 
two parts ? 

6. Say what you know about the Eastern Empire. 

7. When, and why, did the Western Empire come to an 
end ? 

8. What were the political divisions of Germany in 1815? 



23 



CHAPTER IV 
THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT— II 

HAVING now, as it were, cleared the ground, 
we will proceed to see how the Congress of 
Vienna dealt with the three great nineteenth- 
century notions of nationality, democracy, 
and federation. First take the case of nationality. 
Since revolution in France had led to such terrible con- 
fusion, not only in France itself but also in the rest 
of Europe, it was now determined that, as far as 
possible, the work of revolution should be undone ; and, 
to that end, the sovereigns whom Napoleon had deposed 
and despoiled, or, failing them, their next heirs, should 
be restored to the pre-revolutionary thrones. This 
principle was called ' legitimacy/ and the legitimate 
monarchs were to be given back their kingdoms. 
Various territorial changes, however, were made, of 
which the following were the most important : 

Territorial Changes in 1814. — 1. Prussia continued 
her career of expansion. Starting in the seventeenth 
century with the little Electorate of Brandenburg, a 
district round Berlin, the ruling family of Hohen- 
zollern inherited the Duchy of Prussia ; upon which 
they changed their title from Elector of Brandenburg 
to King of Prussia. Later, Prussia annexed Silesia, 
Pomerania, and part of Poland ; and that was its fullest 
extent at the time of Napoleon's fall. From the very 
first, the policy of the Hohenzollerns seems to have 
been to rule despotically as kings by divine right, and 
24 



THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT 

to organize thoroughly the civil life of their subjects. 
Military power, wielded by aggressive sovereigns, was 
the secret of Prussia's territorial expansion ; and civil 
organization was the secret of her undoubted internal 
prosperity. 

If you look at the map, you will see that up to this 
point Prussia had been an East German Power. By 
the award of the Vienna Congress, however, she received 
a large district situated on the Rhine ; and these new 
lands, viz., the Westphalian and the Rhine Provinces, 
made her a Western Power too, and also gave her a 
frontier touching France. She wanted Alsace-Lorraine 
as well, and was very much dissatisfied when the Con- 
gress refused her demands ; indeed, she kept on wanting, 
until, as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, 
the Alsace-Lorraine plum dropped, as it were, into the 
German mouth. But of this we shall speak later. 

Various other changes were made among the German 
States, but these we need not particularize. The Elec- 
torate of Hanover was made into a kingdom and was 
ruled by the kings of England until the accession of 
Victoria in 1837, when a son of George III succeeded to 
the crown as next male heir. 

2. Austria gained Lombardy and Venice — far and 
away the richest provinces in the Italian peninsula — as 
well as Galicia, some valleys in the Eastern Alps, the 
Dalmatian coastland, and a few islands in the Adriatic 
Sea. Thus what was really only a German State to 
begin with stretched out its hands and now governed, 
in addition to the Magyars of Hungary, also the Poles 
of Galicia, the Slavs of Dalmatia, and the Italians of 
Lombardy and Venice. 

3. Russia received Finland and a part of Poland. 

4. In Italy — which was then not one kingdom but 
many — several changes were made. In the first place, 
Piedmont, increased by the little republic of Genoa, 
was restored to the kingdom of Sardinia ; note this well, 

25 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

for Sardinia, as we shall see later, was to be the means 
of uniting the whole peninsula under one government 
as it exists to-day. Lombardy and Venice, as we have 
already learned, were ceded to Austria, and as several 
other Italian States were ruled by princes of Austrian 
blood, it is evident that Austrian influence there must 
have been very great. The Pope got back the States 
of the Church — a wide strip of territory stretching in a 
north-easterly direction right across to the Adriatic; 
and in the south, the Kingdom of Naples, known also 
as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, was given back to 
its Bourbon king. Of course the Italians were angry 
that their country should be so much under the thumb 
of foreigners ; and they longed, too, for national unity 
in place of so many petty States. But the time for 
attaining freedom and unity was not yet at hand ; and 
the Italians had to wait — often very impatiently — for 
the good time coming. 

5. England retained Ceylon, Malta, the Cape of Good 
Hope, Trinidad, Mauritius, St Lucia, and Tobago. She 
further received Heligoland and the protectorate of 
the Ionian Islands. Heligoland she subsequently gave 
up to Germany in return for rights over the island of 
Zanzibar on the African coast of the Indian Ocean. 

6. Holland was made into an hereditary kingdom 
under the House of Orange ; and, in order that she 
might be better able to check any possible encroach- 
ments on the part of her neighbours, she was given 
Belgium — the former Austrian Netherlands. Britain 
was especially set upon effecting this arrangement ; for 
the mouths of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt form a 
series of harbours opposite the Thames ; and these, if 
held and fortified by one of the great European Powers, 
would have been, as Napoleon had phrased it, so many 
pistols pointed at the heart of Albion. As the people 
of Holland and Belgium, however, differ in language, 
race, and religion, their union did not last very long. 
26 



THE USE THAT WAS MADE OF IT 

7. Norway was taken from Denmark — as a punish- 
ment for the latter's support of Napoleon — and united 
with Sweden ; though each country kept its own parlia- 
ment, and managed its own internal affairs. This 
change gave great dissatisfaction to Norway ; but it 
remained in operation till 1905, when the kingdoms 
were finally divided, a Danish prince being chosen king 
of Norway. Denmark was, of course, much weakened 
by her loss, as now she retained only the peninsula of 
Jutland and the islands at the entrance to the Baltic ; 
though the King of Denmark was still duke of the two 
German provinces of Schleswig and Holstein in the 
isthmus joining Jutland to the mainland. 

8. France kept pretty nearly the same boundaries as 
she had possessed before the Revolution, but she lost 
some of her colonies. 

9. Spain and Portugal once more became indepen- 
dent kingdoms ; but as they were unable to retain their 
great possessions in South America, they eventually 
came to be classed as second-rate Powers. 

10. Switzerland became a federal republic of cantons, 
some speaking French, some German, and one Italian. 

11. The Turks continued to rule over the Balkan 
Peninsula, with its mainly Christian population of 
various races. Their European empire extended from 
Cape Matapan northward to the rivers Save and Pruth, 
and its northern boundaries touched the south of 
Austria and Russia. Only at one point, in the north- 
western highlands, did a branch of the Slav race main- 
tain its independence under the Prince of Montenegro. 

So much for the territorial changes. They were, as 
you see, arbitrary, made on no other lines than the 
desire for ' legitimacy ' and the will of the arbiters. 
The people of the various countries were not consulted ; 
indeed they were pretty completely ignored ; and little 
or no weight was given to considerations of race, lan- 
guage, sympathies, and material interests. In other 

27 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

words, nationality — destined to be one of the chief 
factors in the moulding of nineteenth-century Europe — 
was treated as a thing of little moment. 

What about the second great factor ? What about 
democracy ? That, too, received scant favor — indeed 
no favor at all, but rather disfavor. If the legiti- 
mate sovereigns represented at the Congress of Vienna 
were unanimous on any point, it was on that of main- 
taining their own privileges and those of the Court and 
the nobility. The people must be repressed, ' kept in 
their places,' and made to bow in deep humility before 
their social superiors. As for the revolutionary idea 
of the people governing themselves and making their 
own laws, that was absurd, and must be resolutely 
stamped out. 

The Holy Alliance. — With the third idea, however, 
viz., that of the federation, the case was somewhat 
different. The Czar Alexander I proposed that the 
Powers should combine to secure a permanent peace 
based on " the sacred principles of the Christian reli- 
gion," the principles of justice, charity, and peace. 
Princes, for the future, were to look upon each other as 
brothers, and to regard their subjects as little children ; 
and the nations were thus to be joined together in one 
glorious league of Christian brotherhood. Prussia and 
Austria agreed to fall in with the Czar's scheme, and 
so this peculiar kind of federation, the Holy Alliance 
of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, came into being. 
Britain, however, refused to join ; for her statesmen con- 
sidered that the King of Prussia, the Emperor of 
Austria, and the Czar of Russia ought not to be 
entrusted with the vast powers such an alliance would 
give them. The three were autocrats, absolute 
monarchs, believers in the doctrine that the " divine 
right of kings " was one of the " sacred principles of the 
Christian religion"; and so it was only to be expected 
that they would use the power of their union for the 
28 




29 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

purpose of crushing movements toward greater demo- 
cratic liberty that might spring up in any of the 
European States. Doubtless the British statesmen were 
right in refusing to join such an undesirable kind of 
federation as the Holy Alliance. 

Nationality, democracy, federation : if we glance 
back at the contents of this chapter we see that the 
treatment which these three great principles received 
at the hands of the Congress of Vienna gave little 
promise of a permanent European peace. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Explain the principle of ' legitimacy,' and its applica- 
tion by the Vienna Congress. 

2. What was the extent of Prussia before and after the 
Vienna Congress ? 

3. Give two principles which underlay the policy of the 
Hohenzollerns. 

4. Enumerate the territorial changes made by the Vienna 
Congress as regards (a) Germany, (b) Austria, (c) Russia, 
(d) Italy, (e) England, (/) Holland, (g) Norway, and 
(h) Turkey. 

5. How did the Vienna Congress deal with the ideas of 
nationality, democracy, and federation ? 



80 



CHAPTER V 
THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— FORWARD 

HAVE you ever considered the fact that 
nothing in the whole universe is ever abso- 
lutely still ? The stars move in their courses, 
and the planets swing round the sun; and 
what is true of these great bodies is equally true of the 
materials of which they are composed. Take, for 
instance, this piece of granite cropping out from the 
mountain-side. It seems still enough, does it not ? 
And yet it, too, is moving; not only as a whole, with 
the earth of which it forms a part ; in addition to that, 
every little molecule of felspar, mica, and quartz is, 
were our eyes but sharp enough to detect the process, 
vibrating like a pendulum or the prongs of a tuning- 
fork. And if the law of movement is general in regard 
to inanimate nature, it is equally true of living things, 
of men and nations. This history treats of nations, 
and nations are never still ; they change their character 
and conditions from time to time, and — I want you to 
note this very carefully — these changes are like vibra- 
tions, a swinging backward and forward. In other 
words, national progress never continues uniformly and 
always in a straight line, and after a period of reform it 
is safe to prophesy a period of reaction. Let us hope 
that reforms may triumph' in the end ; anyhow, they 
have always reaction to reckon with. 

Now the period that preceded the Congress of Vienna 
was a time of attempted reform, when the spirit of 

31 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

reform was, so to speak, awake and stirring in France, 
and just yawning after a long sleep in other parts of 
the Continent. In like manner, the period that fol- 
lowed was a time of reaction. The two movements we 
might term the forward and backward swing of the 
historical pendulum ; and before telling the tale of the 
latter, the time of reaction, it may be well to consider 
briefly the story of the former, the time of reform. 

The Spirit of Reform. — The year 1789 will always be 
remembered as the date of the terrible and wonderful 
French Revolution. Now revolutions do not come of 
their own accord and spring out of nothing; there are 
always causes for them, and there were very powerful 
forces at work to produce the French Revolution of 
1789. 

At that time the bulk of the French people were very 
much downtrodden and oppressed. The king, the nobles, 
yes, and numbers of the higher clergy too, took the 
common people's money by way of taxes and other 
impositions, and lived in prodigal luxury ; while at the 
same time many of the common people had to deprive 
themselves even of the common necessaries of life in 
order to supply the demands of the so-called upper 
classes. Indeed, the families of thousands of French 
peasants had to go supperless to bed, and rise to a 
scanty breakfast of crusts, because the money to buy 
them sufficient simple food had been taken to provide 
rich banquets for the great lords of Church and State. 

And, not content with taking away the people's 
money, these arrogant upper classes took away their 
liberties as well, so that a poor man scarce dared to call 
his soul his own. The king and the nobles took away 
liberty of action and exacted rigid obedience in deeds ; 
and the clergy took away liberty of thought and 
exacted rigid obedience in belief. 

Of course there were nobles who did not oppress their 
dependants, but, on the contrary, took a genuine 
32 



THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— FORWARD 

interest in them and tried to make them happy ; and 
there were earnest, hard-working parish priests, poor 
themselves, who received little from others, and whose 
character and conduct were beyond reproach. But 
these cases only serve to bring out in bold relief the 
whole system of government which made it possible for 
the evils of which we have just spoken to be so widely 
prevalent as they undoubtedly were. 

But we are told that even a worm will turn; and in 
1789 the French people turned— not in ones and twos, 
not in small sections, but in a great mass — and declared 
that they would bear their bitter burdens no longer. 
Led and inspired by the writings and speeches of many 
celebrated authors, philosophers, and orators, they 
proclaimed that henceforth France should be a kingdom 
of Reason, a realm where the poor man should have 
equal rights with the rich, and where the clergy should 
no longer be allowed to fetter the judgment of the laity. 

Now these great ideas of the rule of reason, the rights 
of man, the brotherhood of humanity, were really very 
powerful forces. Would it surprise you if I said that 
a great idea is vastly more powerful than the strongest 
machine that was ever made, or ever will be made ? 
Yet, believe me, this is quite true ; for machinery, after 
all, can only move matter; while ideas, with faith 
behind them, but not otherwise, move the spirit ; and 
spiritual forces could, if they only had free, fair play, 
make a new and better world of men and women. 
Well, the great ideas at the root of the French Revolu- 
tion were taken up with enthusiastic faith, and so they 
speedily swept away many of the abuses under which 
France had long groaned. 

Unfortunately, however, many good things were 
swept away along with the bad ones ; and many evil 
deeds were done by those who professed to be guided by 
good principles. Just how it was that this came about 
is a story too long to tell you here. Perhaps I can best 
C 33 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

sum the matter up by saying that the educated men, 
the philosophers, the thinkers, who had planned a new 
freedom for France, were overpowered and carried 
away by the uneducated mob that still smarted from 
past sufferings. Now the unthinking passion of a mob 
is a terrible sight ; and the mob of Paris, led by men 
whose motives were not always pure, did many deplor- 
able acts. In this manner they attempted to build 
the new State on foundations of revenge and cruelty — 
a wretched mistake that was sure to defeat its own ends. 
But, all the same, the revolutionaries, though they 
often acted with a judgment that was both cruel and 
bad, believed most earnestly in the great ideas for 
which the Revolution stood. You have seen some dull, 
lifeless kind of man suddenly roused from his apathy 
by a fit of anger. Think of pre-Revolutionary France 
as that dull, lifeless man ; and think of how the great 
ideas of the Revolution roused the nation, transformed 
its very appearance, and gave it tremendous added power. 

Napoleon Bonaparte. — At this point there comes 
into the picture a wonderful personage, Napoleon 
Bonaparte. If anyone were to ask what were 
Napoleon's chief claims to greatness, the answer might 
fill many pages ; for the performances of this man of 
magic were both numerous and remarkable. Though 
his achievements as a soldier overshadowed those of a 
more peaceful character, it must not be forgotten that 
he gave to France a code of laws, the famous Code 
Napoleon, which entitles him to rank as a lawgiver 
with the Roman emperor Justinian. But of course it 
is as a soldier that he is chiefly remembered ; and here 
he had the genius not only to see a magnificent oppor- 
tunity, but to seize it also. He got a firm hold on what 
we may term this strong, idea-inspired New France, 
and used it for His own ends, which were those of 
world-wide dominion. 
34 



THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— FORWARD 

It must be remembered, too, that though Napoleon 
contrived to get more of his own way than perhaps 
any other ruler of his century, yet both in France and 
out of it he was at first regarded as the champion of 
liberty, equality, fraternity ; and his soldiers, in their 
career of conquest, looked upon themselves as mes- 
sengers carrying the good news of these things to 
nations that were still governed by absolute kings. In 
this manner, though the power of the great dictator 
was finally shattered, the doctrines of the Revolution 
remained strong and active throughout the length and 
breadth of Europe. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Explain what is meant by " the forward and back- 
ward swing of the historical pendulum." 

2. Name some of the causes that led to the French 
Revolution of 1789. Did it keep its ideals pure ? If not, 
why not ? 

3. Say what you know about Napoleon Bonaparte as a 
lawgiver. 

4. What was the main secret of Napoleon's power in 
France ? 



85 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— BACKWARD 

FROM the preceding chapter it will be seen that 
the ' legitimate ' sovereigns, restored by the 
Congress of Vienna, were soon to find that the 
spirit of their subjects had changed very con- 
siderably ; the people were no longer willing to submit 
to their rulers with the old slavish obedience. Now 
the citizens of every State have, or ought to have, and 
to exercise, two separate and distinct functions, their 
rights and their duties. Hitherto the latter had been 
heavy and the former light; but from 1815 onward this 
began to cause more and more dissatisfaction, and the 
nations cried out for less duties and more rights ; per- 
haps we should not be far wrong if we said that there 
then arose a danger — which possibly exists to-day — 
that people should think too much of what they ought 
to have and too little of what they ought to do. But 
the absolute rulers were by no means willing to give 
up their former powers ; and, in effect, they said to their 
subjects, " We possess the rights; to you belong the 
duties." In this manner they did their best to put 
back the clock, and act as though there had been no 
French Revolution, and no new ideas had recently been 
born. 

For some time the people submitted to the old 
demands, though they grumbled a great deal, and their 
obedience was by no means so ready as it once had 
been. The fact is, they were so thoroughly tired of 
36 



THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— BACKWARD 

wars, quarrels, and disturbances of all kinds that they 
were willing to ' lie low ' for the sake of the rest which 
a much-needed peace would give them. Just as a 
spirited horse, when quite jaded and worn out, will 
submit to the whip without bolting, or kicking over 
the traces, so the jaded and worn-out nations of Europe 
submitted once more to the exactions of their absolute 
rulers. But just as the spirited horse, when its strength 
and courage have been restored by rest and good food, 
will endure the whip no longer, so the European 
nations, after refreshing themselves by a period of 
peace, began to rise against their old masters, and 
endeavor to overthrow the settlement made by the 
Congress of Vienna. 

Reaction. — One of the first nations to make its pro- 
test was Spain, where the Bourbon monarch Ferdinand 
VII had been restored to his throne. On his return, 
this unwise ruler, instead of making gradually the 
changes he wished to bring about, took up the work in 
a very quick and dramatic fashion. At one sweep he 
abolished the reforms that Napoleon had instituted 
during the French occupation of the Spanish Penin- 
sula — reforms which gave the common people much 
more freedom than they had been accustomed to enjoy ; 
and, not content with taking away his subjects' liber- 
ties, he began to persecute the patriots, and to restore 
the excessive powers of the clergy. When the Spaniards 
had borne these arbitrary doings until their patience 
was exhausted, they rose in revolt, and, in 1820, com- 
pelled the King to give them back the reformed Con- 
stitution as Napoleon had left it. 

In Naples, too, another King Ferdinand passed 
through pretty much the same experience as the Ferdi- 
nand of Spain ; and, like him, after trying, as it were, 
to ride the high horse, was compelled to dismount and 
submit to the will of the people. 

Do you think that the other European Powers had 

37 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

any right to interfere with the home affairs of Spain and 
Naples ? Evidently they believed they had. You 
remember the Holy Alliance — Russia, Austria, and 
Prussia ? The sovereigns of these three countries, well- 
nigh absolute in their own realms, were unwilling to 
allow liberal government — that is, a government in 
which the people had a large share — anywhere else. 
" Absolute monarchs should stand by each other " : 
that was a principle on which they were all agreed ; 
they resolved to act upon it now, and to stand by the 
two would-be-absolute Ferdinands. So Prince Metter- 
nich, the Austrian prime minister, called a European 
Congress at Troppeau in 1820, and again at Laibach 
in 1821 ; and, backed by the other members of the Holy 
Alliance, he carried a resolution to the effect that 
revolutions must be repressed, and that a beginning 
should be made with the revolution in Naples. 

To Austria was entrusted the task of bringing little 
Naples to order ; and the Austrian army was so large 
that it did its task with great ease, and speedily 
restored King Ferdinand to place and power. 

Delighted with his success in Naples, Metternich now 
turned his attention to Spain ; and at the Congress of 
Verona, in 1822, France, now under Louis XVIII, was 
instructed to put down the liberal patriots of Spain. 
As a result Ferdinand regained his throne. He cele- 
brated his triumph by a series of cruel reprisals. 

But the absolute rulers of Europe were not destined 
to have everything quite their own way. One of the 
most absolute of them was the Sultan of Turkey ; and 
he, at this time, held, as part of his dominions, the 
historic land of Greece. In 1821 the Greeks suddenly 
rose against their Turkish masters, and claimed inde- 
pendence. Roused to ferocity, the Sultan not only 
allowed, but actually encouraged, his troops to commit 
many terrible atrocities ; and twenty thousand Greeks 
were barbarously murdered in the island of Chios. To 
38 



THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM— BACKWARD 

crown all, the Turks put to death the Patriarch of 
Constantinople, the head of the Greek Church ; a crime 
which shocked the conscience of Christendom, and 
roused the Slavs to desperation. 

But, as so often happens in warfare, atrocities on one 
side led to atrocities on the other. In this respect one 
cannot but admit that the Greeks often showed them- 
selves very barbarous and unscrupulous, and very quick 
to return evil for evil. 

What excuse can be offered for such conduct ? If, 
under the influence of righteous anger, a man commits 
a crime, his anger does not justify his crime, though it 
may serve to palliate it. But what shall we say about 
war-lords who make reprisal — and reprisal, moreover, 
for deeds which they know very well have never 
occurred at all — their cold, deliberate, calculating policy, 
and murder the innocent as a matter of what they have 
the audacity to term ' principle ' ? 

Popular Sympathy with Oppressed Nationalities. — To 
return, however, to our story, the people of Europe 
sympathized deeply with the Greeks as the original 
sufferers, and were all on fire to help them in their 
struggle against the Turkish tyrant; indeed, volunteers, 
among whom we may mention the poet Byron, poured 
into Greece from all parts of the Continent ; money, 
too, was readily subscribed. But though the people 
helped freely and generously enough, for some time the 
governments refused to intervene; and the Sultan, call- 
ing to his aid his vassal, Mehemet Ali of Egypt, seemed 
very likely to crush the revolt. 

Eventually, in 1825, Britain, France, and Russia 
decided to take action, and, as the Sultan refused to 
accept the advice they offered, the combined French 
and British fleets sailed to the Bay of Navarino, where 
the Turkish warships were then at anchor. The allies 
had no distinct instructions to give battle ; indeed, it is 
probable that no battle was intended, but merely a 

39 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

' demonstration in force.' " See how strong we are, 
and beware of flouting the counsel we give you " : such 
was the message the allied fleets sought to impress 
upon the Sultan ; and they thought he would perhaps 
give way before such powerful persuasion. But an 
unexpected dispute arose, and shots were exchanged ; 
with the result that a general engagement took place 
(1827), and the Turkish fleet was completely destroyed. 
This, however, did not end the war, and in 1828 the 
Czar Nicholas, who had succeeded Alexander I, invaded 
the Turkish Danubian Provinces, and, by the treaty 
of Adrianople, compelled the Sultan to recognize the 
independence of Greece, and also to appoint Christian 
governors to Serbia, Wallachia, and Moldavia. But 
the Czar was not permitted by the other European 
Powers to arrange terms with Turkey exactly as he 
wished ; and it was not until 1830 that the matters in 
dispute were finally settled at a congress held in 
London. Prince Otto of Bavaria became the first king 
of the free monarchy of Greece. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Why did the ' legitimate ' monarchs have more 
difficulty in maintaining their autocratic rule after the year 
1815? 

2. Give an account of the protests made by Spain and 
Naples against autocratic rule. 

3. How were these protests dealt with ? 

4. Say what you know about the rise and progress of the 
Greek Revolution of 1821. 

5. State the circumstances which led to the naval battle 
of Navarino. 



40 



CHAPTER VII 
THE TROUBLES OF 1830 

THE independence of Greece was the first 
great victory of nationalism since the Congress 
of Vienna ; that is to say, the Greeks, believing 
themselves to be a separate and distinct 
nation, had succeeded in splitting away from the mix- 
ture of nations that formed the Turkish Empire, and in 
forming for themselves an independent kingdom. It 
was also a step toward democracy, the government of 
the people by the people ; for whereas the rule of the 
Sultan had been absolute, that of King Otto was 
limited by the rights of his subjects as written down in 
the Charter, or Constitution. Of this the King must 
not override a single provision ; whereas the Sultan had 
no Constitution to bind him. 

Limiting Autocracy. — But Greece was not alone in her 
determination to be free. The Greek revolution was 
followed, in 1830, by another in France ; but here it 
was the spirit of democracy that was concerned rather 
than that of nationalism. We have seen how, in 1815, 
the European Powers placed Louis XVIII on the 
French throne. At the same time, however, they 
insisted that he must make no attempt to rule abso- 
lutely, but should give his people a Constitution; 
though perhaps some of them would not have been so 
keen on this point had they not felt certain that France, 
the home of revolution, would no longer tolerate a king 
with no limit to his powers. 

41 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

The Charter of Louis XVIII guaranteed the four 
great constitutional rights, viz. : 

(1) Equality before the law ; the same law for the 
rich as for the poor, for the noble as for the peasant. 

(2) Personal freedom ; nobody to be unjustly im- 
prisoned or unjustly tried. 

(3) Freedom of conscience, or religious liberty; 
every man to be allowed to choose his own belief or non- 
belief. 

(4) Freedom of the Press ; no restrictions to be placed 
upon the expression of opinion in books and news- 
papers. 

At the same time two legislative chambers were 
established, the lower consisting of Deputies and the 
higher of Peers. In these chambers the king alone, 
through his ministers, could bring forward new laws ; 
and the king had the right of veto. Only a small num- 
ber of the population — about 100,000 — had votes. 

Though the extremists, that is to say, the republi- 
cans on one side and the friends of absolutism on the 
other, were by no means satisfied with their new Con- 
stitution, it proved acceptable to the great bulk of the 
moderates, and it worked fairly well. Unfortunately, 
however, the opening of Louis's reign was marked by 
a violent persecution of the Bonapartists. This move- 
ment, encouraged and engineered by the emigres, or 
nobles who had now returned from exile, was known as 
the ' White Terror.' It spread over Southern France, 
and was marked by cruelties as black as those of the 
Revolution of 1798. The emigres would have liked the 
King to exercise still greater severities toward those 
who had so recently upset the monarchy, and they 
wished him to take back to himself the sovereign's old 
absolute power. But Louis was much more sensible 
and moderate than they were. The troubles of their 
exile had taught them no good lessons, and they had 
returned to their country as foolish, haughty, and over- 
42 



THE TROUBLES OF 1830 

bearing as they went away ; whereas Louis, who, like 
Charles II of England, had no desire to go on his travels 
again, had learnt that if he wished to keep his throne 
he must try to conciliate his people. He managed, 
therefore, after the first outburst of the ' White Terror,' 
to keep his nobles in check, and as long as he did so 
things worked pretty smoothly. 

In 1824, however, Louis died, and was succeeded by 
his brother Charles X, a man of no tact and little 
common sense, who combined in his own character most 
of the worst vices of the absolutist party. He was 
king, he said, not by the will of the people, but by 
divine right ; and under no circumstances whatever 
had the people the right to depose him. Encouraged in 
his pretensions by the nobles, or court party, he made 
it his steady policy to favor the latter at the expense 
of the common people ; and by bribery and threats he 
induced the Chambers to pass various laws which, 
though they pleased the Court, were very unpopular in 
the country. Among these may be mentioned a 
measure giving one billion francs to the nobles in order 
to compensate them for the losses they had sustained 
in the troubles of 1798. As no compensation was 
offered to the farmers, the merchants, the manufac- 
turers, the tradesmen, the workmen, or, indeed, to 
anybody but the nobles, it was felt that this measure 
was nothing but a bit of gross favoritism, and accord- 
ingly it was widely resented. 

By and by, however, the Chambers rebelled, and 
refused to follow the King to the lengths he wished them 
to go in a legislation of reaction. But, refusing to take 
warning that he was rapidly wearing out the nation's 
patience, Charles, in 1830, dissolved the Deputies ; and, 
as he could now get no further constitutional laws, he 
began to substitute for them decrees of his own. In 
the July of 1830 he issued four of these decrees or 
ordinances. The first suspended the liberty of the 

43 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Press ; the second dissolved the Chambers ; the third 
summoned a new Parliament ; and the fourth limited 
the list of voters to people who, for the most part, 
would be likely to support the sovereign through thick 
and thin. 

The July ordinances were met by a storm of indig- 
nant protest, and dangerous riots took place in Paris. 
A number of moderate men now came together and 
agreed that Charles X should be deposed, and that the 
crown should be offered to Louis Philippe, Duke of 
Orleans, a member of the Bourbon family, but not in 
the direct line of succession to the throne. The offer 
was duly accepted. Perhaps no better choice could 
have been made ; for the new king, a man of simple 
tastes and good life, was quite willing that his should 
be a limited monarchy, and that France should have 
her great desire, viz., " a popular throne surrounded 
by wholly republican institutions." The Constitution 
was amended in such a manner as to take away further 
power from the Crown, and it seemed as though France 
would settle down into a constitutional monarchy 
modelled after the British plan. 

News of the events that had just occurred in France 
soon spread, and roused the hopes of discontented 
nations elsewhere. The first of these to take action 
was Belgium. This little country, " the cockpit of 
Europe," had had a very troubled past. At one time 
it had belonged to Spain ; at another to Austria ; then 
it had been occupied by Napoleon ; and finally, without 
itself having been given a voice in the matter, it had, 
at the Congress of Vienna, been incorporated with 
Holland. 

From the very first this union had been unpopular 
with the Belgians. True, they belonged to the same 
race as the Dutch ; but the two languages were dif- 
ferent ; so were the religions, Holland being Protestant 
and Belgium Roman Catholic ; then, too, the interests 
44 



THE TROUBLES OF 1830 

of Holland were largely commercial — sea-trade with 
foreign countries — while those of Belgium were con- 
cerned chiefly with agriculture and manufactures. 
Perhaps the causes of disagreement might have been 
gradually smoothed away had the King of Holland been 
a man of broad-mindedness and tact. But, unfortu- 
nately, William of Orange was greatly lacking in these 
desirable qualities. He set himself to discourage 
Roman Catholicism in Belgium, tried to make Dutch 
the common language, and, according to the Belgians, 
looked upon Dutch affairs as much more important 
than theirs. Moreover, there were four million Belgians 
to two million Dutch, and the former could send no 
more members to the common parliament than the 
latter. Taking one consideration with another, the 
Belgians believed they were no longer justified in sub- 
mitting to what they regarded as an attempt to 
Hollandize their native land. 

So they claimed a separate administration, and, when 
William refused the demand, they followed the example 
of France, and revolted. Naturally they were anxious 
as to what the European Powers would say and do at 
this attempt to upset the Vienna settlement. How did 
these Powers take the matter ? France, the home of 
revolution, as a thing of course, countenanced the 
revolution in Belgium ; and, after some hesitation, so 
did Britain. The Czar Nicholas wished to interfere, 
and proposed to send to the help of the Dutch an army 
of 60,00 men; but, before these could be despatched, 
an insurrection in Poland gave him his hands full. 
Prussia had internal troubles of her own ; so had 
Austria ; and neither of the two could spare time and 
men and money for the purpose of coercing Belgium. 

Left thus to themselves, the two parties in the dis- 
pute set to work to settle the matter by force of arms, 
and probably Holland would have won had not France 
stepped in with an invading army. Britain, too, took 

45 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

a hand, blockaded the Dutch coast, and laid an embargo 
on Dutch shipping. In this manner Holland was 
forced to give way, and Belgium was formed into a 
limited monarchy, with Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as the 
first king; he reigned from 1831 to 1865. The Great 
Powers, viz., Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and 
Austria, recognized the independence of the new king- 
dom, and guaranteed its neutrality — a matter of which 
the formalities were finally completed in the May of 
1832. 

Autocracy Triumphant. — What about the two Cen- 
tral European Powers ? What about Germany and 
Austria ? How did revolutionary movements affect 
them ? Neither enjoyed national unity, but each con- 
sisted of a number of separate States hanging together 
very loosely ; and neither enjoyed constitutional free- 
dom. In both these respects there was bound to come 
a change in the direction of national unity and demo- 
cratic liberty; but the time for any great change was 
not yet ripe. For centuries the German people had 
been bred in the habit of submission to their rulers, and 
it would doubtless be difficult to break this ancient and 
ingrained custom, and to induce the folk to rise against 
their rulers ; in other words, the Germans had a long 
way to go before they could be a true democracy. As 
for national unity, that, too, was out of the question 
so long as each petty State held so tightly and so 
jealously to its own petty rights and petty privileges. 
Revolutionary stirrings, however, were by no means 
wanting, and by the close of the year 1830 many of the 
smaller States had granted more or less liberal' Consti- 
tutions to their subjects. It was only Austria and 
Prussia that still clung firmly to the antiquated system 
of absolute government. 

In Italy, too, there were many mutterings and 
growlings of discontent, especially in the central part 
of the peninsula, the Papal States. How do you sup- 
46 



THE TROUBLES OF 1830 

pose these latter were governed ? In an absolute 
manner, and by the clergy ; for the Pope was not only 
the absolute head of the Church, he was the absolute 
head of the government also. Imagine an archbishop, 
in addition to regulating the affairs of the churches 
under his jurisdiction, also giving laws to counties and 
States, and appointing clergy to see that his laws were 
duly carried out. It was some such condition of affairs 
that existed in the Papal States in 1830, and many 
Italians objected strongly to the arrangement. More 
than once, indeed, they ventured to rebel; but as 
Austria, with her feet firmly planted in Italy, always 
took the part of the Pope in his disputes with his sub- 
jects, it followed that the latter had very little chance 
of establishing their claims. 

But the troubles in other parts of the Continent were 
trifling compared with the disturbances which took 
place in Poland. At the Congress of Vienna a large 
part of this country had been handed over to Russia, 
and the Czar Alexander had agreed to give his new 
subjects a Constitution. This promise he kept, so that 
Poland had now its own government and its own army ; 
but of course the Poles could not do quite as they liked, 
for, after all, Alexander was their sovereign ; and he 
meant to be a sovereign in reality, not a mere figure- 
head. 

Now the Poles were a very proud race, with a parti- 
cularly fine record behind them ; and, remembering that 
they had been a flourishing nation long before their 
present masters, they did not like the idea of submitting 
to people upon whom they had once looked down. So, 
like a wild horse when it is first harnessed, they chafed 
under the restrictions upon their freedom that Alexander 
thought fit to impose ; and, instead of trying to con- 
ciliate him, began to obstruct, and even conspire 
against, his rule. Alexander, to do him justice, had 
started with very good feelings and intentions toward 

47 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

his new subjects; nay, he had even gone so far as to 
encourage them to hope that, some day, he might 
restore the provinces taken away from them in the par- 
titions of 1772 and 1795. When, however, he found 
that they did not return his good feeling, but, on the 
contrary, were only watching for an opportunity to 
revolt, he changed his tactics, and began to deprive the 
would-be revolters of the means for making revolt effec- 
tive. From 1820 onward he took away much of the 
freedom he had originally granted; and when he died 
his successor, Nicholas I, carried on this policy with 
still greater severity. 

The success of the French Revolution of 1830 stirred 
the Poles to action, and they took up arms. Let us, 
however, be quite clear as to who really did take up 
arms. In Poland there were two distinct classes of 
people, with a wide gulf of prejudice and class-feeling 
between them. There was the aristocracy of land- 
owners, and there was the peasantry; and the former 
oppressed the latter perhaps more than Russia oppressed 
Poland. It was chiefly the aristocracy who revolted ; 
and, as the peasants took very little part in the fight- 
ing, the movement can scarcely be described as national. 

If the other European countries did not interfere, the 
Polish insurrection was doomed ; for what could an 
army of forty thousand do against the mighty hosts of 
Russia ? And the other countries did not interfere. 
The people of England, and, more especially, of France, 
sympathized with the Poles, and would have liked to 
help them, but the governments refused to be drawn 
into the struggle ; though possibly the insurgents had 
counted on help, if not from England, at least from 
France. The Russian army marched in. Sanguinary 
fighting took place. By disunion and treachery among 
themselves the Poles threw away any ghost of a chance 
they might possibly have had; and their cause was 
speedily crushed. 
48 



THE TROUBLES OF 1830 

Nicholas, a much more stern and relentless man 
than Alexander, determined to make anything like a 
Polish insurrection forever impossible. Accordingly he 
abolished Poland as a nation, and made it a mere 
Russian province ; he endeavoured to stamp out the 
Polish religion, Roman Catholicism, and to substitute 
for it the State religion of Russia, viz., that of the Greek 
Church ; and he tried to replace the language of the 
Poles by the Russian tongue. But all his efforts failed 
to kill the spirit of Polish nationality. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What were the chief provisions of the Charter of 
Louis XVIII ? 

2. What was the * White Terror ' ? 

3. Give an account of the reign of Charles X. Contrast 
the character of this monarch with that of his successor, 
Louis Philippe. 

4. Name the causes of, and narrate the events which led 
to, the separation of Holland from Belgium in 1831. 

5. Say what you know about the political conditions of 
Germany, Austria, and Italy in 1830. 

6. Describe the Polish Revolution of 1830. 



49 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 

FROM 1815 to 1848 there were no great inter- 
national disputes to record. But though during 
the whole of this long period the different 
nations kept the peace with their neighbours, 
many of them — as we saw in 1830, and as we shall see 
again in 1848 — had plenty of quarrels and fights at 
home. The Congress of Vienna had settled both their 
boundaries and their form of government, and in 
neither case had the settlement proved satisfactory ; for, 
as we have already seen, the boundaries had been laid 
down on arbitrary lines, and the government, as then 
constituted, was of an absolute character. True 
national boundaries and real democratic control — it 
was the desire for these things that lay at the root of 
most of the national troubles. 

Even had the people of the Continent remained in 
exactly the same condition of development as in 1815, 
dissatisfaction would have been bound to arise, for the 
seeds of it had already been sown ; but, during the pro- 
gress of the nineteenth century, this condition changed 
in a wonderful manner. The thirty years of peace that 
followed the Napoleonic wars had produced remarkable 
effects. Material prosperity had increased by leaps and 
bounds ; industrial inventions and extensions of com- 
merce had multiplied the wealth of the nations ; and 
the development had been quite as great in the depart- 
ments of knowledge and thought ; so that what might 
50 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 

possibly have been tolerated in 1815 had become well- 
nigh unendurable in 1848. Indeed, like lusty boys, the 
nations, as it were, had outgrown their suits, and were 
now crying out for new and larger garments. 

French Political Parties. — In this chapter we will take 
the case of France, a country which, having once more 
experimented with revolution in 1830, was anxious to 
see how its Orleanist government would succeed. And 
the Orleanist government had a difficult task before it ; 
for there were in France four distinct parties with very 
conflicting claims. There were : 

1. The Bonapartists, who looked back with pride 
on the military glories of the Empire, and longed for 
the return of the Napoleonic dynasty. In 1840, when 
the remains of the great soldier were brought from St 
Helena and buried with much pomp at Paris, the 
enthusiasm that was then displayed showed that the 
Bonapartists were still a strong power in the land. 

2. The Bourbonists, or Legitimists, who wished for 
the return of the Bourbon line of kings. 

3. The Republicans, who wanted to do away with 
royalty altogether. Many, though not all, of the repub- 
licans were socialists. Now the socialists were not only 
many ; they were very active also ; and as we are told 
that " the nimble ninepence goes farther than the slow 
shilling," so the nimble socialists went farther, that is 
to say, gained more influence than perhaps their actual 
numbers warranted. What was it that they wanted ? 
Well, they wanted many things, but they did not all 
want the same things ; for there were, and are, in their 
body many sections, or schools, so that the word 
' socialist ' covers a wide diversity of opinion. One 
thing, however, they all had in common : they all 
believed that the State ought to take a greater share in 
the management of the business of daily life, and that 
it should control many trades and professions previously 
in the hands of private enterprise. 

51 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

4. The Orleanists, the party of Louis Philippe. 

Now the Orleanists, for the most part, belonged to 
the well-to-do middle classes, or bourgeoisie, and, as 
they had been mainly instrumental in placing Louis 
Philippe on the throne, he began by making it his prime 
duty to please them. It would have been nobler on 
his part, as well as better for him in the long run, if he 
had worked for the welfare of France as a whole, 
instead of labouring for the good of his own party. 
There were many reforms he might have made — reforms 
which would have gained for him the goodwill of the 
working classes, who of course formed the bulk of the 
nation. These, however, he refused to touch. Looking 
upon himself as the representative of the capitalist 
middle classes, he did little or nothing to ameliorate 
the condition of the poor. 

Revolt of the French Lower Classes. — And the poor 
were rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. 
On the stage of life their absolute rulers had, as it 
were, long kept them in the back row; now they were 
determined to come more to the front. The French 
were no longer a scattered, ignorant, agricultural 
people ; for the growth of manufactures had drawn large 
numbers into the towns and cities ; and the workmen 
read, thought, talked, came together in clubs, and 
formed themselves into trades unions and political 
societies. This change from a population of sluggish- 
minded peasants to one that was largely composed of 
quick-witted artisans, eager to learn and ready of 
speech, had one very important result. Wage-earners 
now felt, rightly or wrongly, that their interests were 
often opposed to those of their employers. Indeed, the 
conflict between capital and labor — a conflict which 
we should all be so glad to see satisfactorily settled and 
done with — had fairly and squarely begun. Louis 
Philippe was certainly not the man to make a satis- 
factory settlement. He was too one-sided, too pre- 
52 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 

judiced, for that. All his sympathies were with the 
bourgeoisie ; and, resolutely setting his face against the 
claims of the industrial population, he made the latter 
his enemy. 

As time passed, too, he lost the liking of many of his 
immediate supporters ; for, instead of being content to 
rule as a constitutional king, whose rights were limited 
by charter, he more and more took into his own hands 
powers to which the Constitution did not entitle him. 
In other words, he tried to establish once more the old 
absolutist practice of the personal rule of the king, with 
its consequent ignoring of the will of the people; and 
this the bourgeoisie did not mean to permit. Had the 
ill-advised monarch taken to heart the lessons of recent 
French history, he would not have blundered so badly. 

Downfall of the Monarchy. — Up to the year 1847, 
however, most people believed that Louis Philippe was 
firmly and securely seated on the throne of France, and 
few would have ventured to predict his speedy down- 
fall. A tree, fair and flourishing to the casual observer, 
may yet be so honeycombed by the dry rot of a long 
series of years that the next tempest will bring it 
crashing to the ground. The power of Louis Philippe 
might well be compared to just such a tree. It was 
certainly supported by a majority of the Deputies, and 
the government was not very scrupulous about the 
means it used for maintaining that majority. But the 
majority of the Deputies did not represent a majority 
of the people ; for, out of a population of 30,000,000, 
there were now only 200,000 voters, and these were all 
men of some property. In 1848 the tree of Louis 
Philippe's power fell before the storm of a popular 
outburst. 

It happened in this way : The Orleanist Deputies 
were divided into two sections, which we may term the 
section of the moderates and the section of the pro- 
gressives. The former of these was led by Guizot and 

53 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the latter by Thiers ; both the party chiefs were men of 
literary distinction, and both were friends of the 
Orleanist dynasty, but they fell out over the question 
of the franchise. Thiers sympathized with the poorer 
classes in their claims to be allowed to vote ; Guizot 
opposed these claims. At this time Guizot was prime 
minister ; so Thiers, being out of office, set to work to 
stir up public opinion in favor of his views; and, as 
part of their plan of campaign, he and his friends 
arranged to hold a Reform Banquet on February 22, 
1848. The government, however, forbade this banquet, 
and so it did not come off. Hearing of the govern- 
ment's high-handed proceeding, the Paris mob marched 
through the streets, crying " Long live reform ! Down 
with Guizot ! " 

Now thoroughly alarmed, the King dismissed Guizot, 
and expressed himself as ready to meet the wishes of the 
people and to give them the votes they asked for. But 
matters had gone too far for a peaceful settlement. 
Some of the mob had been killed ; and their friends, 
putting the dead bodies on carts, dragged them through 
the streets, proclaiming that the government was 
deceiving the people, and meant, not to conciliate them, 
but to call out soldiers to shoot them down. The 
popular cry now changed from " Long live reform ! " 
to " Long live the Republic ! ' : Armed rioters paraded 
the streets ; the Palais Royal was attacked, and even 
the Palace of the Tuileries was threatened. The King 
now signed an act of abdication in favor of his grand- 
son the Count of Paris ; then he went away and took 
refuge in England, as Charles X had done eighteen 
years before. 

Had the Deputies, with their clear majority of 
moderates, acted like men of courage, the monarchy 
might have been saved. They could have met and 
proclaimed the Count of Paris as king, when the crisis 
might have been tided over. Instead of this, however, 
54 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 

they fled before a rabble that broke into the parliamen- 
tary hall. And the same rabble, taking the affairs of 
the nation into its own hands, declared for a republic 
and appointed a provisional government, of which the 
poet Lamartine was the leading spirit. 

Rash Experiments. — The Republicans had thus gained 
their point, and the monarchy was now a thing of the 
past. But they were by no means a unanimous body. 
As we have already seen, there were two distinct sec- 
tions amongst them, viz., the orthodox Republicans and 
the socialists. The former merely wished that the 
government should change from a monarchy to a 
republic ; but the latter added to this a desire for a great 
alteration in social conditions, and their representatives 
pressed their program upon the provisional govern- 
ment to such good effect that it agreed to the principle 
of ' the right to work.' On the very next day a decree 
was passed for the immediate establishment of national 
workshops, where those who could not, or would not, 
find employment elsewhere might be taken into the ser- 
vice of the State. 

But the provisional government was of course only 
a temporary makeshift. Presently the elections for a 
National Assembly were held ; when, though the voting 
took place on the basis of universal suffrage, the 
socialists, very much to their surprise, found themselves 
in an insignificant minority, the bulk of the new 
Deputies turning out to be men of comparatively 
moderate views. 

The socialists, quite unlike good sportsmen, took their 
defeat badly, and, instead of accepting the verdict of 
the elections, made an attempt — which deserved to fail, 
and did fail — to turn out the National Assembly and 
establish a second provisional government, with them- 
selves as the chief power. 

Now however deeply we may condemn this uncon- 
stitutional violence, we must all of us confess that the 

55 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

socialistic idea of the right to work, with its practical 
application in the form of national workshops, has 
something very alluring about it. If a man wants to 
work, it seems only right that a suitable opportunity 
of working should be furnished him; and if private 
enterprise fails to furnish such an opportunity, is it not 
the duty of the State to do so ? Undoubtedly there is 
something to be said on both sides — there usually is. 
As a bit of pure theory, however, State intervention 
claims consideration; the difficulty lies in the practical 
application — the apparent inability of government 
officials to manage business concerns other than waste- 
fully. Some day — who knows ? — it may be that 
national workshops will prove the remedy for the hard- 
ships and cruelties of unemployment. Anyhow, the 
matter is worthy of grave and serious consideration, 
and I commend it to your careful thought. Meantime, 
let me tell you the story of how the French experiment 
of 1848 failed. 

You have heard the expression " Rush the thing 
through ! " Well, the French scheme of national work- 
shops appears to have been rushed through, and I think 
that was one of the chief causes of its failure. Rushing 
is all very well in a game of football ; but the most care- 
ful and deliberate of planning is necessary in the case of 
any great social change, and this care and deliberation 
the social change of 1848 certainly did not get. A 
hundred thousand men who were out of work came 
together from all parts of France; and when they 
arrived at Paris they found that no suitable provision 
had been made for giving them work to do. At first 
they were put to purposeless diggings and refillings in 
the Champ de Mars, and paid at the rate of two francs 
a day; and, when these wasted labors were finished, 
and nothing more remained to be done, the huge army 
lived in idleness on a government pension of a franc 
a day per man. 
56 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 

Now these so-called laborers were naturally indig- 
nant at the way in which they had been treated ; more- 
over, many of them were armed ; and so, instead of 
there being in Paris a body of men doing useful work 
for a reasonable wage, and living in decency and com- 
fort, as the projectors of the national workshops had 
intended, there was an army of idle and discontented 
persons ripe for any mischief to which some irrespon- 
sible agitator might incite them. To this dangerous 
state of affairs the government determined to put an 
end, and in June the national workshops were closed. 

The reply of the disbanded workmen was to barricade 
themselves in the eastern quarter of Paris, to demand 
the dissolution of the National Assembly, and to insist 
that the national workshops should be reopened. 
Terrible righting took place between the workshop army 
on the one side and the soldiers of the government on 
the other; and the insurrection was not suppressed 
until thousands of lives had been lost. 

Having restored peace, the Assembly now turned its 
attention to the task of settling the form of government. 
It was decided that this should be republican. A single 
Chamber of Deputies, elected for four years on the basis 
of universal suffrage, was to perform the legislative 
functions — to make the laws ; while a President, elected 
for four years also, was to be the head of the executive 
— to be responsible for seeing that the laws were duly 
carried out. When the result of the poll for a Presi- 
dent was declared, it was found that Louis Napoleon, 
son of the King of Holland and nephew of the great 
Bonaparte, was the successful candidate. 

" I accept," said he, " the candidature, because three 
successive elections and the unanimous decree of the 
National Assembly against the proscription of my 
family warrant me in believing that France regards the 
name I bear as one that may serve to consolidate 
society, which is shattered to its foundations." 

57 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Name, and state the nature of, the chief political 
parties in France in the reign of Louis Philippe. 

2. " The poor were rapidly becoming a force to be 
reckoned with." Explain this. 

3. Narrate the circumstances which led to the fall of 
Louis Philippe and the Orleanist Government. 

4. What was, and now is, the main doctrine of the 
socialists ? 

5. Describe the French experiment with national work- 
shops, and say why it failed. 



58 



CHAPTER IX 
THE GERMAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

WE are to picture Europe as existing for 
many years in a condition of unrest ; for 
the people were no longer content to be like 
dumb, driven cattle ; on the contrary, they 
longed and strove for the right to shape their own 
destinies, and the destinies of the nation in which they 
lived. Poets, prose-writers, and public speakers had 
everywhere kept alive and active the spirit of national- 
ism and that of democracy; and by 1848 it seemed as 
though the popular demands, long repressed by rulers 
and their governments, must burst the bounds and 
take effective action. 

Scientists tell us that if water be kept perfectly still 
it is possible to reduce its temperature below freezing- 
point without the formation of ice ; but if a pebble be 
dropped into the water forthwith the whole body of 
liquid is transformed into a solid block of ice. We may 
call this a physical revolution. Well, the peoples of 
Europe had long been kept very still by their absolute 
sovereigns ; but a great change had been taking place in 
their character and condition all the time ; and it only 
needed the drop of a pebble to effect a revolution both 
social and political. That pebble was the French Revo- 
lution of 1848. Encouraged by the success of this, 
other revolutions, or would-be revolutions, broke out in 
different parts of the Continent. There were republi- 
can agitations in Spain and Belgium, Chartist dis- 

59 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Jurbances in England, an insurrection in Ireland, and a 
great uprising among the people of Germany and Austria. 

At Vienna and Berlin, the capitals respectively of 
Austria and Prussia, this movement proved so strong 
that it succeeded in abolishing absolutism, and estab- 
lishing constitutional monarchy instead; and the 
example of the two leading Teutonic States was speedily 
followed by most of the others. 

The Frankfurt Parliament. — Having thus secured a 
measure of freedom, the people now turned their atten- 
tion to the question of national unity, and, in order to 
establish such a unity, set up a general German Parlia- 
ment elected by universal suffrage. This met in May 
at Frankfurt, and the members, for the most part, 
were wise, learned, or otherwise distinguished men, all 
anxious to see the many Teutonic States joined in one 
great whole. " We have got," said the German people, 
" a united Parliament ; we shall therefore very soon 
have a united Germany ; there is no doubt whatever 
about that." 

But wait a moment ! There was a great deal of doubt 
about it, as we shall soon see, and as the German 
people were soon to see. To distinguish oneself greatly 
in life, two chief things are necessary, viz., wisdom and 
force. The wisest man in the world, if he has no energy, 
no driving power, will not be likely to rise very high 
above his fellows ; the plans he makes may be quite 
perfect, but if he does not possess the strength to 
execute them they are doomed to failure. Well, the 
German Parliament had wisdom to make good plans, 
but the wisdom was not backed by force, by a strong 
army, or indeed by an army of any kind. 

For the first few months things worked very smoothly, 
because all the different States seemed to have made up 
their minds to obey this central body of representatives. 
But far-seeing men saw danger ahead. What, for 
instance, if Prussia, or Austria, were to say : " We da 
60 



THE GERMAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

not agree with a certain law passed by the Parliament ; 
so we mean to ignore it, go on our own way, and do just 
as we please " ? In that case there would come a con- 
flict of wills between one party without any military 
power, and another with plenty of soldiers. 

Such a conflict was not long in taking place. The 
matter arose out of a dispute about Schleswig and 
Holstein, the two duchies occupying the southern part 
of the peninsula of Jutland. These were united to 
Denmark, though the union was not very close ; for each 
duchy had its own laws, and the King of Denmark was 
simply Duke of Schleswig and Duke of Holstein. Now 
just then it appeared likely that the male line of Danish 
sovereigns would presently die out, and in that event 
the crown would pass to the female line. But the law 
of Schleswig-Holstein did not permit of a female line of 
succession ; and thus it seemed probable that soon the 
King of Denmark would lose the two dukedoms, which 
would pass to somebody else. Fearing such a separa- 
tion, the Danes passed a new law binding the duchies 
to them for all time. 

To this the Schleswig-Holsteiners objected ; indeed 
they resented it so strongly that they revolted, threw 
off their allegiance to Denmark, and proclaimed their 
independence. Moreover, being many of them Ger- 
mans, they appealed to the German Parliament for help ; 
and this body ordered Prussia and others of the North 
German States to drive the Danes out of Schleswig and 
Holstein. The task was an easy one, and soon accom- 
plished. Presently, however, the King of Prussia, 
without consulting anybody or anything but his own 
convenience, made peace with the Danes, and practi- 
cally delivered over to them the revolted duch'ies. But 
the struggle went on until a conference of the European 
Powers, held at London in 1850, decided that Schleswig 
and Holstein, much to their disgust, should be per- 
manently attached to the Danish Crown. 

61 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

The German Parliament was naturally indignant at 
Prussia's high-handed and unauthorized line of action ; 
but, as it had no army, and the King of Prussia 
possessed a very efficient one, it was obliged to give 
way. Other States soon followed Prussia's example, 
and ignored all authority but that of their own will ; 
until by the end of 1848 it was clear to everybody that 
the idea of German unity was, as yet, merely a dream. 
And with the unity went much of the freedom ; for 
many of the State rulers went back on their word, and 
took to themselves once more a great deal of the power 
they had granted to the people. 

But though it had so far proved a dismal failure, the 
discredited Assembly of representatives did not quite 
give up hope. On the contrary, it gallantly set to work 
to form a complete Constitution for a united Germany 
of the future, and, having accomplished this to its own 
satisfaction, looked about for what we may term a key- 
stone to the constitutional arch, that is to say, an 
emperor. Who should be emperor of the forthcoming 
Germany ? The choice lay between the two greatest 
German princes, the Emperor of Austria and the King 
of Prussia ; and, after long and heated debate, the 
decision went in favor of the latter. He, however, 
declined the honor — partly, perhaps, because he had 
leanings toward absolutism, and partly because he 
knew very well that, if he accepted, Austria would be 
furious, and would possibly make war upon him. 

Without an emperor, an empire was of course impos- 
sible, and so the scheme of a united German Empire fell 
through. What would the Parliament do next ? As 
it had failed in the two chief things it had undertaken, 
viz., to give to the German people a general constitu- 
tion and imperial unity, it acknowledged its failure, 
and quietly dissolved itself. Its place was taken by 
the antiquated Bund, with its Assembly, or Diet, com- 
posed not of representatives elected by the people, but 
62 



THE GERMAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

of delegates from the various governments. The Diet 
duly met, talked as much as ever, but did nothing to 
unify Germany or to give the German folk more 
freedom. 

Now all this was very disappointing to the patriots 
who had hoped so much from the popular outburst of 
1848, and many of them were quite rilled with despair. 
Would their native land, they asked themselves, ever 
come to be a united whole governed by representatives 
of the people ? Or would it continue for all time to 
exist under the personal rule of its many petty sove- 
reigns ? The wiser among the patriots believed they 
would stand more chance of attaining the end for which 
they longed and strove if they could succeed in obtain- 
ing the help of the governments. Hitherto the struggle 
had been that of the people against the governments. 
If only the governments themselves would take up the 
task, instead of opposing it, as they had done, then 
Germany might eventually become united and free. 
Later we shall see that the governments did take up 
the task. But we will keep that story for its proper 
place. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What was the general effect in other European 
countries of the French Revolution of 1848 ? 

2. Name the countries where revolutionary agitation took 
place. 

3. What was the constitution of the general German 
Parliament that met at Frankfurt in 1848 ? Name its vital 
defect. 

4. Describe the dispute concerning Schleswig and 
Holstein. 

5. What was the Bund ? How did it differ from the 
general German Parliament? 

63 



CHAPTER X 

THE AUSTRIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

A S the Germans of Prussia, and also of the 
/% smaller States, had revolted, so also did the 

/ % Germans of Vienna ; and their example was 
-^- -^* speedily followed by the other Austrian 
peoples, so that it seemed as though the empire of many 
races was about to fall to pieces. 

An empire of many races it was in very truth. 
Magyars, Poles, Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, 
Czechs, Germans, and Italians : all these different 
peoples, with their different languages, religions, 
manners, and customs, were bound together under the 
absolute rule of the Austrian Emperor. For the sake 
of simplification, however, it will be well if we give to 
the Poles, Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Slovaks, 
and Czechs the common name of Slavs ; so that, roughly 
speaking, we may say that Austria was an empire of 
Magyars, Germans, Slavs, and Italians. The Magyars 
were the people of Hungary, the Germans the people of 
Austria proper, the Slavs the people of the outlying 
districts, and the Italians the people of Lombardy and 
Venice. At the same time, however, we must remem- 
ber that there was no strict line of demarcation between 
the different nationalities, for these everywhere over- 
lapped each other. Especially was this true of the 
Slavs, many thousands of whom lived in Hungary and 
Austria proper. 

Now the year 1848 was remarkable for the fact that it 
64 




65 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

witnessed revolutions among each of the four groups 
which we have just enumerated, viz., the Germans, the 
Magyars, the Slavs, and the Italians. Of the revolu- 
tion in Italy we shall treat in the next chapter. Here 
we concern ourselves with those that took place among 
the Germans, the Magyars, and the Slavs. 

Racial Selfishness. — It is certain that if there was 
one country in Europe — Russia perhaps excepted — that 
needed a revolution, and needed it badly, that country 
was Austria, for it could not be disputed that she was 
very much behind the times. The common people had 
just about as much freedom as the serfs of the Middle 
Ages; and the feudal system, which was here, so to 
speak, in full blast, gave them over, bound hand and 
foot, to the will of their social superiors. The people 
at the bottom ; trampling upon them the nobles ; and 
trampling upon everybody, when it pleased him to do 
so, and when he considered the proceeding safe, the 
absolute emperor ! Such an unfair arrangement 
surely deserved to be upset. Under the guidance and 
support of the famous diplomatist and statesman 
Prince Metternich, a man of European reputation, it 
had long stood, apparently on firm foundations ; but 
now there ensued a general effort to bring about its 
overthrow. 

Had the whole of the Austrian peoples acted to- 
gether, and worked for one and the same object, they 
would probably have attained what they wished for — ■ 
as France had done so recently. If, for instance, they 
had all said : " We are out for a constitutional govern- 
ment, with equal rights for Germans, Magyars, and 
Slavs," they would have been strong enough to enforce 
their demands. But instead of acting and working 
together, each race strove for its own ends, each was 
honeycombed with racial selfishness, and each put the 
welfare of itself before that of the empire as a whole. 
And, to make matters worse, not only were Germans, 
66 



THE AUSTRIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

Magyars, and Slavs disunited ; they were also antago- 
nistic ; each wanted certain things which the others 
regarded as their own ; and each was angry with the 
others for trying, as it were, to snatch away its 
rights. 

Take first the Germans. There is no doubt that at 
this time they were the predominant race — not, it is 
true, in actual numbers, but in power and influence ; 
for not only were the ruling sovereigns, the Habsburgs, 
Germans, but Germans held most of the government 
offices and controlled the government policy. This 
influential position they were not willing to lose ; and 
so, though the democracy of Austria proper wished for 
a constitutional government, they objected to giving 
to Magyars and Slavs the political rights to which they 
themselves aspired. " If we were to do this," they 
argued, " then the Magyars and Slavs, who greatly 
outnumber us, would also be able to outvote us in our 
parliamentary assemblies, and thus deprive us of the 
power we at present enjoy. By all means let us keep 
our place of pre-eminence over the inferior races." But 
the races in question objected to be considered as 
inferior ; they were indignant with the arrogant Teutons 
who wished to treat them as inferiors ; and so, in homely 
phrase, " they got their backs up." 

Under these circumstances, one can scarce wonder 
that the Magyars and the Slavs, being so much out of 
sympathy with what they believed to be the unreason- 
able German claims, made up their minds to separate 
entirely from so highly ' superior ' a people. In 
other words, they determined that they would each 
have, not only a constitutional government, but also 
a government quite independent of German Austria. 
That is to say, the Magyars would have an independent 
Hungarian kingdom based on constitutional lines ; and 
the Slavs would have an independent Slav kingdom, 
based on constitutional lines too. 

67 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

But there were still more complications in a situation 
already sufficiently complicated. Not only did the 
Magyars and the Slavs range themselves against the 
Germans, they also ranged themselves against each 
other; for Magyar despised Slav, and Slav disliked 
Magyar, and just as the Magyars were not willing to 
give equal political rights to the Slavs residing in Hun- 
gary, so the Slavs were not willing to give equal political 
rights to the Magyars residing in the proposed new Slav 
kingdom. 

Here, then, were four opposing parties, viz., the abso- 
lute Emperor Ferdinand I, the Germans, the Magyars, 
and the Slavs. That Ferdinand, a weak and incapable 
ruler, came out victor in the end, and was able to main- 
tain his absolute grip on his dissatisfied subjects, was 
chiefly due to three causes : 

1. The fidelity of his army. 

2. The divisions among his enemies; for by siding 
first with one, then with another, and then with the 
third, and so getting each in turn to help him against 
the rest, he was able eventually to defeat the schemes 
of all. 

3. The intervention of the Czar of Russia, that great 
pillar of absolutism in Europe, who came to his aid at 
a very critical moment, and turned what might easily 
have been a defeat into a triumph. 

A Check to Democracy. — It is not necessary to treat 
at any length of the struggle between the Emperor and 
his people. The revolution in Austria began at Vienna, 
where the populace demanded the dismissal of the 
reactionary Metternich, who fled and took refuge in 
England, leaving the government in the hands of the 
mob. Ferdinand then granted freedom to the Press, 
and promised a liberal Constitution. For a time the 
revolution was successful, and democratic rule ensued. 
Eventually, however, the Hungarians came to the 
Emperor's rescue, the insurgents were defeated, and, 
68 



THE AUSTRIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

so far as the German democracy was concerned, the 
Austrian absolutist monarchy was saved. 

The centre of the Slav agitation was Bohemia. 
Thither, however, was despatched Prince Windisch- 
gratz, with a contingent of the imperial army; and he, 
leading his troops to Prague, the capital of the province, 
speedily bombarded it into submission. With the fall 
of Prague the malcontents lost heart ; Slav Congress, 
National Committee, democratic clubs, and all the 
ambitious projects of the Slav nationalists burst like 
pricked bubbles ; and once more Bohemia lay prostrate 
at the feet of the Emperor. 

In Hungary the task of subjection proved much more 
difficult ; for, although the Magyars had for centuries 
submitted to the rule of the Hapsburgs, they were still 
a proud, high-spirited race, and, inspired by the 
writings and speeches of the patriotic journalist and 
orator Louis Kossuth, they now made a bold bid for 
freedom and independence. In the war that ensued, 
the imperial army of 100,000 men began by sweeping 
all opposition before it, and it seemed as though the 
Hungarian rising was about to be crushed in the bud. 
Presently, however, the tide turned, and the Magyars, 
in spite of the hostility of the southern Slavs, began to 
make headway. Indeed, they might eventually have 
succeeded in their national designs had it not been for 
the interposition of Russia. The Czar Nicholas, view- 
ing with alarm the progress of the democratic move- 
ment at his very gates, and fearing that the spirit of 
revolt might spread to his subjects in Russian Poland, 
stepped in to the assistance of his brother Emperor, 
at whose disposal he placed an expeditionary force of 
close upon 200,000 men. Attacked by Russia from 
the east and Austria from the west, Hungary fell, and 
the Austrian yoke was once more fastened upon her 
unwilling shoulders. 

In this manner absolutism triumphed in the Austrian 

69 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

dominions, and freedom and nationality lay, as it were, 
in the dust. Once again Austria had become a great 
consolidated Power — now ruled by her young Emperor 
Francis Joseph, in whose favor his uncle Ferdinand I 
had recently abdicated. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. " Austria, the empire of many races." Explain this 
expression fully. 

2. What was the social condition of Austria in 1848 ? 

3. Say what you know about Metternich, Prince 
Windischgratz, Kossuth, Ferdinand I, and Francis Joseph. 

4. What were the three chief causes which enabled 
Ferdinand I to triumph over the revolutionary parties ? 

5. Why did the Austrian Revolution fail? 



70 



CHAPTER XI 
THE ITALIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

IN this wonderful year of revolutions, 1848, there 
was of course no kingdom of Italy. On the con- 
trary, from the Alps to the southernmost point of 
Sicily, the country was divided into a number of 
separate States, most of which were independent. The 
chief of these States were Lombardy, Venetia, and 
Piedmont, in the north ; south of these the Grand 
Duchy of Tuscany ; across the middle of the peninsula, 
the Papal States ; while the south comprised the King- 
dom of the Two Sicilies, that is, the southern end of 
the peninsula and the island of Sicily. 

Lombardy and Venice were owned by Austria ; but 
Austrian influence did not end here, for several other 
States either were ruled by Austrian tools or were more 
or less under the Austrian thumb. Piedmont formed 
part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was at that 
time governed by Charles Albert, a representative of the 
House of Savoy, the oldest ruling family in the Italian 
peninsula. Tuscany was independent, under its own 
Grand Duke. The Papal States were under the autho- 
rity of the Pope ; while the Two Sicilies were governed 
by a Bourbon king. 

The Ideals of Mazzini. — Now' just as Kossuth had 
been working for freedom and nationality in Hungary, 
so a far greater man than he, viz., Mazzini, had been 
working for freedom and nationality in Italy. And 
Mazzini's influence was not confined to Italy; indeed, 

71 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

it extended widely over Europe ; for the great agitator 
was in touch with the revolutionaries throughout most 
of the Continent. But Mazzini had wider projects than 
many of the men of his time. He believed firmly in 
nationality, and labored hard to secure the nationali- 
zation of his own native land. But he did not stop here. 
He believed no less firmly that nationality was only 
one step, though a necessary one, to cosmopolitanism ; 
and he looked forward to the time when all the nations 
of the world should be welded together in the bonds of 
brotherly fellowship, in one united family. 

According to Mazzini, the order of world-develop- 
ment would perhaps be somewhat as follows : 

1. Individual Selfishness — each man working purely 
and simply to gain his own ends. 

2. Family Selfishness — each man working for the 
good of his family. 

3. Tribal Selfishness — each man working for the good 
of his tribe. 

4. National Selfishness, or Patriotism — each man 
working for the good of his country. 

5. World Selfishness, or Cosmopolitanism — each man 
working for the good of humanity. 

Although our first savage ancestors were individually 
selfish, and acted on the motto " Myself first, and the 
rest nowhere," yet our descendants, Mazzini held, would 
eventually become cosmopolitan, and put the welfare of 
humanity as the highest motive of all. In the year 
1848 the spirit of National Selfishness, or Patriotism, 
was very much alive, and Mazzini believed it would 
naturally lead to Cosmopolitanism. Unfortunately, 
his hopes have been very slow of realization ; and 
nationality, so far from having proved to be a step for 
uniting men in a bond of universal brotherhood, has 
long divided Europe into a number of armed camps, 
with the dogs of war ever straining to spring at each 
others' throats. 
72 



THE ITALIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

But, to return to our story, Mazzini, and others of 
his patriotic fellow-countrymen, had fostered and kept 
alive the demands for freedom and national unity ; and 
now the news of the revolution at Vienna set on foot 
similar movements from the Alps right down to Sicily. 
The Lombards at Milan and the Venetians at Venice 
drove out the Austrian garrisons, and proclaimed them- 
selves independent ; then they appealed to the other 
Italian States for help against the foreign tyrant. Now 
a few years before this, such an appeal would have been 
of no avail ; for each State was then under absolute 
government, and one absolute ruler was not likely to 
help revolutionary movements against a brother despot. 
But the spirit of revolution had already spread to 
Tuscany, Rome, Naples, and other States, and it had 
almost everywhere triumphed, so that the required help 
was now readily forthcoming. 

But who was to be the leader of the new national 
movement ? In reply to this question, all eyes turned 
toward Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, a monarch 
who had already shown leanings toward liberalism ; and 
he did not disappoint the expectations that had been 
formed of him. Italian troops converged upon Lom- 
bardy from all parts of the peninsula, and of these 
Charles Albert took command. But, though a brave 
soldier, he did not prove to be a good general. Meeting 
with success at the outset, he failed to press home his 
advantage ; and, instead of striking further blows, and 
striking them hard and quickly, he wasted the precious 
moments in delay, and thus allowed time for hostile 
reinforcements to pour in from Austria. Two note- 
worthy battles followed, one at Custozza in the July 
of 1848, and another at Novara in March of the suc- 
ceeding year. In both these the Austrians were vic- 
torious ; and, after Novara, Charles Albert, rather than 
sign a humiliating peace, abdicated in favour of his son 
Victor Emmanuel II. 

73 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

By the victory of Novara, Austrian fetters appeared 
to be once more firmly riveted upon Italy ; for Lom- 
bardy and Venice again lay at the mercy of the invaders 
from over the Alps. But the Italians, though they had 
failed in the immediate object for which they strove 
and fought, had acquired two important possessions — 
not material possessions, it is true, but none the less 
real for all that. 

1. They had learnt the lesson that they must unite 
if they meant to be free; they must fight for one 
national flag. 

2. They had found their natural leaders in the House 
of Savoy, the monarchs of Sardinia. 

A Set-back to Liberty. — We said just now that the 
revolutionary cause had been successful in most of the 
Italian States ; but this success proved merely tem- 
porary. Indeed, the victory of the Austrians was 
speedily followed by a great collapse of constitutional 
government, and the petty despots took up their old 
powers again. George Eliot tells us that our pet vices 
are apt to " steal back subtly on a soul half saved." 
Well, as yet the Italian States had only half saved their 
freedom ; and so the despots, like pet vices, stole back 
to their unwarrantable place of pre-eminence. 

Now the revolutions and reactions to which the pre- 
vious paragraph refers were not of an importance suffi- 
cient to merit special consideration — with one excep- 
tion, viz., the revolution and reaction that took place 
in the Papal States. In the year 1848 Pius IX, who 
had won the favor of his subjects by a number of 
liberal concessions, held the two offices of (1) Pope, or 
sovereign Pontiff, and (2) lord of the States of the 
Church. At the beginning of the war to drive the 
Austrians out of Italy he had sent a contingent of troops 
to aid the national cause. Presently, however, he 
began to reconsider his attitude. He was a prince of 
Italian territory, and, as such, he undoubtedly owed 
74 



THE ITALIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 

allegiance to the Italian cause ; and it was meet and 
right that the fighting-men from the Papal States should 
stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow-countrymen 
from other parts of the peninsula ; that was quite fitting 
and proper. But on the other hand he was head of the 
Christian Church, and, as such, it seemed out of place 
for him to take sides, and to help one portion of his 
flock to slaughter another. How was he to reconcile 
such conflicting claims ? What was the poor Pope to 
do ? In the April of 1848 he published his famous 
Allocution, in which he declared that war with Austria 
was wholly abhorrent from the counsels of a Pope who 
regarded and loved with equal affection all peoples, all 
races, all nations. 

Now neutrality was all very well for a Pope ; but 
Pius IX was a temporal prince as well, ruling over a 
portion of Italian territory, and the Italian nationalists 
held that, in such a cause as theirs, a neutral temporal 
prince must be quite dead to the claims of patriotism. 
Consequently, the ruler of the Papal States now found 
his previous popularity quite dead too ; and the agita- 
tion against him grew so strong that he fled from Rome 
and took refuge in Gaeta. Rome now fell completely 
into the hands of the revolutionaries, who declared that 
by his actions the Pope had forfeited his Italian lands. 
In 1849 the Papal States were proclaimed to be a 
republic. 

But the new Roman republic never had the ghost of 
a chance to live. Roman Catholic people all over the 
world failed to distinguish between the Pope (1) as a 
temporal sovereign of Italian territory, and (2) as the 
head of a universal Church ; and they looked upon an 
offence against the former as an outrage upon the latter. 
They were therefore ready, if called upon, to organize 
another crusade for the purpose of delivering the Holy 
Father from his republican enemies. 

Louis Napoleon, the newly-elected President of 

75 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

France, glad of the opportunity to please his Roman 
Catholic subjects, marched to the Pope's assistance. 
General Garibaldi, who had been made commander-in- 
chief of the Roman forces, put up a gallant fight, but 
was quite overpowered by the numbers brought against 
him. In July 1849 the French captured Rome ; papal 
rule was once more established ; and the Pope returned 
to the Vatican. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Give brief notes on the following : Mazzini, Garibaldi, 
Pius IX, Charles Albert, Victor Emmanuel II. 

2. What were the chief political divisions of the Italian 
Peninsula in 1848 ? 

3. Explain the circumstances that led up to the battles 
of Custozza and Novara, and state the political conse- 
quences of the Italian defeats. 

4. How did Pope Pius IX come to lose his popularity 
in Italy ? 

5. Describe the rise, progress, and final fate of the 
attempt to form the Papal States into a republic. 



76 



CHAPTER XII 

NAPOLEON III 

IN Chapter VIII you were told how the Paris revolu- 
tion of 1848 resulted in the election, as President 
of the French Republic, of Louis Napoleon, son of 
the King of Holland and nephew of Napoleon I. A 
very curious character was this same Louis Napoleon ; 
so strange and enigmatic were now and then his actions, 
that his contemporaries scarce knew what to make of 
him, and sometimes spoke of him as " the man of 
mystery " ; even at the present day, when much more 
material for forming a judgment has come to light, 
there is a great deal in his conduct that still puzzles us. 
One thing about him, however, is quite certain ; on that 
everybody is agreed : he believed that fate had in store 
for him a great future, and through long years of 
obscurity and exile from his native land he held firm 
to the conviction that destiny would some day call 
him to the throne of France. 

The Coup d'Etat. — In this respect he may be termed 
a man of one idea, and men of one idea are always, in 
their degree, personages to be reckoned with ; for they 
have a habit, as the saying goes, of ' getting there,' of 
reaching heights which men of far more brilliant parts 
but of a multiplicity of aims can never hope to scale. 
To succeed, one must usually concentrate, and nobody 
could accuse Louis Napoleon of want of concentration ; 
for his mind was obsessed by the idea of sitting upon 
the throne of France, and his energies were bent upon 

77 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the task of getting there. Lord Beaconsfield tells us 
that " everything comes to him who can afford to 
wait"; though this is only a half-truth, for working 
is at least as necessary as waiting, and if I want a fresh 
supply of firewood on a cold winter's night, it will 
certainly not come to me, no matter how long I may 
wait in my comfortable arm-chair. Well, patient 
waiting, and steady working, had brought Louis 
Napoleon to the presidential seat, and a cold, cal- 
culating opportunism was to take him higher still. 

It will be remembered that, under the Constitution of 
1848, he had been elected by universal suffrage as Pre- 
sident for four years. In this office his powers were 
very great, for not only was he the head of that part 
of the Government whose duty it is to see that the laws 
are duly carried out- — the Executive ; he was also the 
head of that part of the Government whose duty it is to 
defend the country — the army. As head of the Execu- 
tive, he was the brain of the whole body of administra- 
tion ; for local self-government was almost unknown in 
France, and the President, sitting at the centre of a 
thousand and one radiating threads of influence, con- 
trolled the affairs of the whole nation. As head of 
the army, where the Napoleonic tradition was still 
supreme, he held in his hands a powerful means of 
enforcing his will. 

But from the Presidency to the Imperial Throne was 
a long way ; moreover, the path was beset with difficulty 
and danger, so that he who would walk it must walk 
warily. Recognizing the fact that he had far to go, 
Louis Napoleon wasted no time, but at once set out. 

His first step — and a very important one — was a 
systematic attempt to convince his country that it could 
not do without him ; and here he was eminently success- 
ful. At that time affairs in France were in a very 
unsettled state ; the nation was far from being united ; 
and there seemed to be no guarantee that either pro- 
78 



NAPOLEON III 

perty or life would long remain secure ; in other words, 
it appeared as though the government was not strong 
enough to tame and subdue the revolutionary forces 
that were still busily at work. But the nation, weary 
of so many upheavals, desired above all things a settled 
peace ; and this peace Napoleon diligently proclaimed 
that he, and he alone, could supply. He was, he said, 
the representative of the Napoleonic idea, the friend of 
order, the enemy of chaos, the very emblem of strength ; 
and he, and none but he, could give the people the rest 
and peace they so sorely needed. 

A sick man, reading the advertisement of a quack 
medicine, and meeting with the same advertisement in 
every paper and on every billboard, by and by pur- 
chases a bottle of the specific. Constant repetition of 
the same idea has brought a gradual conviction that the 
idea is probably true, and the man at length half 
believes, half hopes, that the stuff will cure him. In a 
similar manner, France, sick of continual turmoil, and 
hearing Napoleon's never-ending advertisements of him- 
self and what he could do, at length half believed, half 
hoped, that the statements were true. This, it may be, 
explains the fact that in his struggles with the existing 
constitutional Chambers these maintained a friendly 
spirit ; though they did not go far enough in their sup- 
port to satisfy him. 

It was the constitutional Chambers, friendly though 
they had shown themselves, that chiefly stood in his 
way ; and accordingly he set himself to undermine their 
popularity, so that, when the time seemed ripe for over- 
turning them, he might have popular support to back 
him. Acting upon this policy — when, as a result of 
radical and socialistic disturbances in the June of 1851, 
the Chambers proceeded to a wholesale punishment of 
the rebels — Napoleon, in the teeth of a recently-passed 
vote, amnestied 1500 of them. And when the 
Chambers, thinking to curb the power of the radical and 

79 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

socialistic elements, passed a law to exclude from the 
franchise some three million of the poorer classes of 
voters, he, Napoleon, proceeded to oppose this, and by 
so doing seemed to constitute himself the champion of 
the poor. " I am a far better friend to the working 
classes than the constitutional Chambers have proved 
themselves ; and if ever it comes to a choice between me 
and the Chambers, I hope the working classes will see 
clearly on which side their bread is buttered." Such 
was the message which Napoleon intended that his 
actions should carry to the people concerned. Unfortu- 
nately, there is good cause for doubting his sincerity, 
and for believing that his advocacy of the claims of the 
poor was merely a bid to secure their support, a sprat, 
as it were, of presidential help to catch the mackerel 
of popular favor. But the people took his assurances 
for gospel, and the mackerel was securely hooked ; that 
was all Napoleon required. The army too — already 
friendly to him on account of the great name he bore — 
he took every opportunity to conciliate, and even 
allowed the soldiers to address him as Emperor. 

On December 1, 1851, all seemed ready for the coup 
d'etat which Napoleon contemplated. In the dead of 
night he had seventy-eight of the leading Deputies 
arrested, and on the following morning he issued broad- 
cast a proclamation justifying himself to the nation. 
When the remnant of the Chambers assembled to im- 
peach him, they were dispersed by the soldiers. Some 
fighting took place in the streets of Paris, but in a few 
days all resistance was at an end. 

By the program laid down in Napoleon's proclama- 
tion, the President was to be elected for ten years; 
he was to be assisted by a ministry responsible to him- 
self alone ; there was to be a Council of State for the 
preparation of the laws ; there were also to be a Legisla- 
tive Chamber and a Senate. The latter was to be com- 
posed of nominees of the President, dismissable at his 
80 



NAPOLEON III 

will. As for the Legislative Chamber, though it was to 
be elected by universal suffrage, yet the President had 
the right of nominating what candidates he pleased ; 
and, in any case, the Deputies could not initiate legis- 
lation. 

To all intents and purposes, this Constitution was a 
despotism ; yet such was the temper of the French 
people, and so well had Napoleon played his cards, that 
when the matter was put to the decision of the masses 
7,500,000 voted for it, and only 640,000 against it. 

Under circumstances such as these, it could be no 
surprise that, within a year, the Empire should be 
established in name, as well as in fact, and this by the 
almost unanimous voice of the people. But it was a 
surprise that, shortly afterward, Napoleon was able to 
announce that, with a few insignificant exceptions, his 
title had been recognized by all foreign States. Maybe 
that recognition would not have been so readily 
obtained, had not the European Powers been too busy 
with their own concerns to be able to find time and 
means for interfering in the affairs of France. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Write a short essay on the character of Napoleon III. 

2. What were the powers conferred upon Napoleon III 
by the Constitution of 1848? 

3. What was Napoleon's ultimate ambition? What 
preliminary steps did he take toward attaining his end ? 

4. Describe the coup d'etat of December 1851. 



81 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE CRIMEAN WAR 

IN the May of 1850 there began in the East a dis- 
pute which was fated to involve in tragic war 
several of the great Powers. There were at that 
time two Christian missions at Jerusalem, one 
belonging to the Greek Church, the other to the Latin ; 
and, unhappily, the priests attached to these mis- 
sions did not always live on terms of peace and 
goodwill with, as it were, their brethren across the 
street. 

Now by the ' Capitulations ' of 1740 France had 
obtained the right of protecting the Latin Christians — 
a right, however, which hitherto she had never thought 
it worth while to press ; and, under the terms of the 
treaty of Kainardji (1744), Russia claimed similar 
rights of protection over the Greek Christians. When, 
therefore, in 1850, the quarrels between the rival clergy 
became acute, each body appealed to what it regarded 
as its legally-constituted head ; that is to say, the Latin 
priests appealed to France, and the Greek priests 
appealed to the stronghold of Greek Christianity, 
Russia. 

Had the relations between the two Powers concerned, 
viz., France and Russia, been of a friendly nature, the 
dispute about the Holy Places might easily have been 
settled. But just as a slight difference of opinion 
between neighbors as, say, to their respective rights 
to a common coal-shed, may lead to bad language, 
82 



THE CRIMEAN WAR 

assault and battery, litigation, and even murder, so the 
petty dispute at Jerusalem was destined to lead to the 
terrible slaughter of a great war. The difference of 
opinion between the neighbors would probably have 
been settled by a little friendly chat, had these neigh- 
bors been really and truly friends ; and, in like 
manner, the Jerusalem dispute — a comparatively trivial 
matter after all — would probably have been settled by a 
little diplomatic correspondence between Paris and St 
Petersburg, had France and Russia been really and 
truly friends too. 

But, unfortunately, there was at that time much bad 
blood between them ; and so each government stood on 
its dignity — often by no means the best of footing — 
and refused to give way. Moreover, it was soon clear 
that Russia meant to widen the dispute, to make the 
issue of a much broader character ; for she pressed her 
claim to protect the Greek Christians not only at Jeru- 
salem, but also throughout all the Ottoman Empire in 
Europe ; and, furthermore, she demanded a formal 
acknowledgment of this greatly extended claim from 
the Porte. As the granting of such a demand would 
have deprived the Sultan of supreme authority over 
one half of his European subjects, he very naturally 
demurred to handing over so much of his power and 
prestige, and in his refusal he was backed up, heart 
and soul, by our Napoleon of the preceding chapter, 
who gave him fully to understand that, in the event of 
armed resistance, he might count upon the help of the 
French army. Perhaps Napoleon believed that a 
foreign war would distract the attention of his subjects 
from domestic politics. 

Here, then, was Russia, ranged against France and 
Turkey. For these opponents, however, the Czar 
Nicholas felt himself quite a match — so long as he 
could succeed in keeping the other European Powers 
out of the struggle. But this soon proved to be quite 

83 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

impossible; for it speedily became evident that Nicholas's 
designs were of an extremely far-reaching character. 
Indeed, in the January of 1853, he spoke quite frankly 
to the British Ambassador at St Petersburg. Turkey 
he compared to a sick man at the point of death, and 
insisted upon coming to some understanding about 
dividing the inheritance. The arrangement he proposed 
was that the whole of the Balkan Peninsula should be 
split up into a number of Christian States under 
Russian protection ; while Britain, as compensation for 
the extension of Russian influence, should receive con- 
cessions in Egypt, Cyprus, and Crete. 

This bait, however, Britain refused, and maintained 
that the fate of Turkey, instead of being decided by a 
kind of miscellaneous grab-and-scramble, should be the 
subject of an international conference ; nay, she in- 
sisted that, by the treaty of 1840, the Powers had 
become the guarantors of Turkish integrity. In these 
contentions she was supported by Austria and 
Prussia. 

It would be tedious to follow the complicated diplo- 
matic negotiations that ensued. First one compromise 
was suggested, then another, but each and all failed to 
bring the disputants to an agreement ; for the attitude 
of Russia was uncompromising, and, when it came to 
the push, Turkey proved perhaps equally stubborn. 
To give him due credit, the Czar Nicholas was un- 
doubtedly right in his contention that the fate of twelve 
millions of Greek Christians in Turkey was a matter of 
the most vital import to the fifty millions of Greek 
Christians in Russia, and that the misgovernment and 
tyranny to which they were subjected demanded repara- 
tion and redress which the ' unspeakable Turk,' how- 
ever much he might promise, would never give. On the 
other hand, however, the Powers, though they might, 
and did, abominate Turkish methods and morals, had a 
deep distrust of Russia's ultimate intentions. 
84 




85 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

On May 5, 1853, a Russian ultimatum went to 
Constantinople, and in June the Russian army 
under Gortschakoff invaded the Danubian princi- 
palities. 

The Russian advance was, on the advice of Britain, 
not opposed by force of arms. Meanwhile, diplomatic 
negotiations were continued ; in these it was the Czar's 
chief aim to keep the other Powers neutral, when he 
and the Turk might thresh the matter out with no 
foreign intervention. The help he had given to Austria 
in the Hungarian War had earned, he thought, at least 
gratitude ; but Austria, afraid of losing her gateway of 
trade down the Danube, refused to give countenance to 
her former benefactor ; indeed throughout the war that 
ensued she maintained an attitude that was often on the 
borders of downright hostility. As for Prussia, she 
held severely aloof; though objecting to Russia's 
claims, she was unwilling to take part in a contest 
which Otto von Bismarck declared to be none of 
Prussia's business. 

In the October of 1853 the combined French and 
British fleets passed through the Dardanelles, really 
as a counter-demonstration to the Russian occupa- 
tion of the principalities, though the reason given 
was to protect the Sultan against a possible 
Mussulman rising ; and in the following January 
they entered the Black Sea. To Russia this 
seemed to amount almost to an act of war ; and 
accordingly, after certain diplomatic questions had 
been asked and answered, war was actually declared 
in the March of 1854. 

The Russians now crossed the Danube, and laid siege 
to the fortress of Silistria ; following which, French and 
British troops landed at Varna. Failing to take Silis- 
tria, the Russians retreated across the Danube, and 
were driven back until they had evacuated the whole of 
Moldavia and Wallachia and had crossed the Pruth 
86 



THE CRIMEAN WAR 

into their own territory. But though Russian aggression 
had been repelled, and that with unexpected ease, 
Britain and France wished to go farther, and to carry 
the war into the enemy's country. They argued that 
as long as Russia possessed a powerful fleet she would 
always be a menace to her Ottoman neighbor ; and as 
long as the Russian battleships could take refuge in 
the strong naval base of Sebastopol, to sweep them off 
the seas would be impossible. It was therefore deter- 
mined to attack Sebastopol, and in September the 
allied forces landed in the Crimean peninsula. They 
were opposed by a Russian army under Prince Menschi- 
koff, and this, after suffering a defeat at the battle of 
the Alma, retreated first into Sebastopol and then into 
the interior of the Crimea. 

Now was the allies' opportunity; for the defences of 
the city were not yet completed, and the place would 
probably have fallen before a prompt and resolute 
attack. But there was a division of counsels, and Lord 
Raglan, the British commander-in-chief, was persuaded 
by his French colleague, Marshal St Arnaud, to post- 
pone operations till the siege-train could be landed. 
This delay gave the Russian engineers under the distin- 
guished General Todleben time to complete their defen- 
sive preparations ; so that when, after a delay of three 
weeks, the attack was at length delivered, it proved a 
failure. Meanwhile, the Russian army returned from 
its retirement, and fought the battles of Balaclava and 
Inkermann. 

There was now nothing for it but a winter's siege. 
As the allies had made no preparation for this, and, 
moreover, as the task of supplying the troops with 
shelter, food, and clothing was scandalously mis- 
managed, the sufferings of the soldiers in such a climate 
of severe storms and intense cold were terrible. 
Generals January and February, the Czar declared, 
would prove his best allies; and he was right in that 

87 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

they greatly thinned the ranks of his enemies. But he 
was wrong in that they also thinned the ranks of his 
own army ; for the Russian supplies had to be brought 
across never-ending leagues of savage and dreary 
steppes, so that the transport roads were soon lined 
with the bones of Russian dead. 

At this juncture the Czar Nicholas died, and his suc- 
cessor, Alexander II, opened negotiations for peace. 
These, however, fell through, and the war — in which 
Sardinia now joined by sending a contingent of 15,000 
men to the aid of the allies — dragged on until, on 
September 9, Sebastopol fell. Even then hostili- 
ties continued for a few weeks longer; but were 
ended, in the March of 1856, by the Treaty of 
Paris. This enjoined : 

1. That the Black Sea should be neutralized, and no 
warships whatever allowed upon it. This applied 
to all the countries on its shores; and, under 
this rule, the said countries were forbidden to 
construct either naval stations or arsenals on the 
Black Sea coast. 

2. That there should be free navigation of the Danube 
under the supervision of a European Commission, and 
that Russia should withdraw from that part of Bess- 
arabia which gave her command of the mouths of the 
river. 

3. That Turkey should be admitted into the Concert 
of Europe, and that the other Powers should guarantee 
her integrity. As, by this provision, Russia conse- 
quently gave up her claim to interfere in the home 
affairs of the Ottoman Government, the Sultan, in 
return, made a " formal declaration of his generous 
intentions toward his Christian subjects." 

In this manner, the allies seemed to have gained 
everything, and more than everything, for which they 
had contended. Yet of these apparent gains some did 
not prove lasting ; while others were gains in name rather 
88 



THE CRIMEAN WAR 

than in reality. Only fifteen years later, Bismarck gave 
his consent to Russian violation of the neutrality of the 
Black Sea, in return for Russian neutrality during the 
siege of Paris. As for Turkey, though she had been 
officially recognized as one of the European Powers, the 
recognition was largely a matter of form ; while the 
promise of the Sultan to respect the rights of his Chris- 
tian subjects was, like pie-crust, soon broken ; and 
the Ottoman Government continued unreformed and 
tyrannical. 

But though the Czar had failed in his project of par- 
titioning Turkey-in-Europe into a number of Christian 
States under his own protection, indirectly the Crimean 
War led to one step in this direction. Napoleon III 
had suggested that Moldavia and Wallachia should be 
united into one State under a prince elected by them- 
selves ; and, in 1857, the two principalities in question 
voted, almost unanimously, in favor of such an 
arrangement. Though Britain — opposed to anything 
like dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire — and 
Austria — afraid of the effect upon her own Rumanian 
subjects in Transylvania — both objected to the scheme, 
it was quietly put into operation in 1862 ; and, four 
years later, Prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen 
was elected prince of the newly-constituted Rumanian 
State. As such he was duly recognized by the Euro- 
pean Powers. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What was the trivial dispute in which the Crimean War 
originated ? 

2. " The Czar Nicholas's designs soon proved to be of a 
far-reaching character." Comment on this statement. 

3. How did France and England come to be involved in 
the Crimean War ? 

89 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

4. Describe the military operations of the war from the 
invasion of the Danubian principalities to the fall of 
Sebastopol. 

5. Name the chief provisions of the Treaty of Paris, 1856. 

6. When, and how, did Rumania first become a recog- 
nized State ? 



90 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

HAVE you ever noticed a large crystal on 
which many smaller ones have firmly 
cemented themselves, the whole forming one 
united mass ? Well, ever since the revolu- 
tionary wars of 1848 the Italians had held fast to the 
belief that Sardinia was destined, as it were, to be the 
large central crystal upon which the smaller ones — the 
other Italian States — would firmly cement themselves, 
the whole forming one united kingdom ; in other words, 
they believed that to Sardinia would be entrusted the 
task of unifying the land they loved so well. The 
future course of events shows that these anticipations 
were a correct forecast of what actually occurred. 

Fortunately for the Italian patriots, they had in 
Victor Emmanuel, the Sardinian king, a monarch who 
not only agreed with their views on national unity, but 
who also possessed the courage and enterprise so neces- 
sary to one who would turn a vision into solid reality. 
Fortunately, too, Victor Emmanuel had, as it were at 
his very elbow, a most gifted adviser in the person of 
Count Cavour. Cavour and Mazzini — it is these two 
great men that Italy has largely to thank for the fact 
that she is now no longer a jumble of separate States, 
but one united realm ; and, of the two, it is perhaps 
difficult to say which played the greater part in the 
drama of Italian unification — Mazzini, the agitator, 
the impassioned advocate, the prophet, the man of 

91 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

universal aims, the seer of impracticable Utopias, or 
Cavour, the astute diplomatist, the reader of men and 
motives, the practical politician, somewhat narrow it 
may be in outlook, but thoroughly efficient in all he 
undertook. 

Problems of Unification. — How to unify Italy : that 
was the problem to which Victor Emmanuel and Cavour 
directed their attention. Formerly, it had been thought 
that the best way of doing this was to form a federa- 
tion of the different States under one common govern- 
ment — like the United States of America to-day. Now, 
however, as we have already seen, the general opinion 
had long been that the unification should begin from 
Sardinia as centre. 

But how should the process be started ? Of course 
Austria — inasmuch as she not only held Lombardy and 
Venetia, but also exercised an overbearing influence in 
other Italian States— was the chief obstacle ; and, so 
long as she retained her footing in the peninsula, all 
hope of Italian unity was out of the question. Austria, 
said Cavour, must go. But saying and doing are two 
quite different things. Nobody expected that Austria 
would go of her own accord ; so who was to make her 
go ? Obviously, without help from outside it would be 
useless for Sardinia to dream of expelling so powerful 
an interloper ; so Cavour looked cautiously round to see 
if he could find a suitable ally. 

Such an ally he secured in the person of Napoleon III, 
who, eager to follow in the footsteps of his famous 
uncle, was glad of the opportunity of giving the French 
another taste of the food they loved so well, viz., so- 
called military glory. In 1858 an agreement, known as 
the Compact of Plombieres, was entered into between 
France and Sardinia. These States, however, were 
both unwilling to take the risk of beginning the war; 
for, had they been the aggressors, they might have had 
to fight not only Austria but other Powers as well. 
92 



THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

Fortunately for them, however, Austria was not so 
circumspect, and soon played into their hands. Guess- 
ing the contents of the Compact of Plombieres, she 
summoned Sardinia to disarm ; and then, without 
giving her time to do so, invaded Sardinian territory. 

War was now formally declared between France and 
Sardinia on one side and Austria on the other; and, 
at first, everything went in favor of Austria, who had 
on the spot a much larger army than her opponents. 
Had General Giulay, the Austrian commander-in-chief, 
struck at once, he might have crushed the enemy at 
the outset ; but instead of this he delayed his attack 
for three weeks, and during that period French troops 
poured into Italy in such numbers as to turn the scales 
in favor of the allies. By the two great victories of 
Magenta and Solferino the French and Sardinians drove 
the Austrians out of Lombardy ; and the news set the 
whole peninsula ablaze, so that everywhere the people 
rose against their absolute rulers, and clamored to 
join the national cause. 

The Truce of Villa Franca. — There now seemed no- 
thing to prevent the allies from driving the Austrians 
not only out of Lombardy, but out of Venetia as well ; 
but, to the general surprise, Napoleon suddenly stayed 
his hand, and, without consulting the Sardinians, 
signed a truce with the enemy at Villa Franca on July 
12, 1859. Several motives seem to have actuated him 
in this. Unlike Napoleon I, he was not a born soldier, 
and the terrible bloodshed revolted him ; then, too, his 
victories had once or twice come very near being 
defeats, and this had strongly dashed his confidence. 
Although he was not unwilling to expel Austria, he 
began to see that Italy might possibly become so strong 
a Power as to prove a rival to France, instead, as it 
were, of a kind of poor relation dependent on her for 
favors ; and such a prospect certainly could not please 
a Napoleon. Lastly, he feared the intervention of 

93 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Prussia ; for Austria, it must not be forgotten, was 
primarily a German Power, and already there were in 
the different German States stirrings of sympathy with 
her in her recent reverses. All things considered, 
Napoleon, acting on the motto that enough is as good 
as a feast, judged it best to be content with the glory 
he had already achieved, and so decided not to tempt 
fate further. 

By the terms of the Villa Franca agreement Austria 
was to surrender Lombardy to Napoleon, on the under- 
standing that he should hand that province over to 
Sardinia ; Venetia was to remain in Austrian hands ; 
and, finally, there was to be a scheme of Italian federa- 
tion with the Pope as head. 

The Beginning of Unity . — This arrangement naturally 
displeased the Italian patriots, who were furious with 
Napoleon for, they said, wrecking their plans when 
these seemed in a fair way of being thoroughly success- 
ful. By and by, however, things began to look less 
hopeless, and the patriots took heart ; for, in 1860, 
Napoleon agreed that the States of Romagna, Bologna, 
Modena, and Tuscany should be joined to Sardinia- 
Piedmont, if the result of a plebiscite showed that the 
people wished for such a union. The vote of the whole 
people gave an overwhelming majority in favor of 
the proposed change, which, accordingly, was duly 
made. This was indeed a most important step, for now 
Northern and Central Italy — Venetia excepted — were 
one. For such a valuable concession, however, the 
Italians had to pay Napoleon a price ; they ceded to 
him Savoy and Nice. 

So far so good ; but two further steps remained to be 
taken before the dream of Italian unity could be 
thoroughly realized ; the southern States must be incor- 
porated, and Venetia must be annexed. 

Now the southern States were two in number, viz., 
the Papal dominion, and what was termed the Kingdom 
94 



THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

of the Two Sicilies ; and the new northern kingdom at 
once set about the task of subduing these. The King- 
dom of the Two Sicilies was the first object of attack. 

Garibaldi's Campaigns. — Here Cavour found just the 
man for his purpose in Giuseppe Garibaldi, a patriot 
of intense enthusiasm, a man with a magnetic person- 
ality which attracted adherents wherever he went, and 
one of the most dashing and enterprising leaders an 
army could possibly possess. Garibaldi was not only 
willing, but eager, to undertake the task cut out for 
him ; so, though without openly fathering the adven- 
ture — for he feared the intervention of the Powers, and 
wished to come before them, not with a dubious pro- 
ject, but with an accomplished fact — Cavour gave 
Garibaldi strong hints to persevere, allowed him to 
obtain arms from the arsenal of the National Society 
at Milan, directed the port authorities at Genoa to 
connive at his embarkation, and instructed the Pied- 
montese admiral to keep between the Garibaldean ships 
and the Neapolitan fleet. In this policy of the accom- 
plished fact first, and reference to the Powers after- 
ward, Cavour has had both many forerunners and many 
followers. " Let us conquer," said Frederick the 
Great; "the politicians will then find plenty of justi- 
fication for us." 

In May Garibaldi landed safely at Marsala, and the 
campaign that followed is one of the most extra- 
ordinary feats of arms the world has ever seen. The 
invaders consisted of only a thousand red-shirted 
volunteers, while to oppose them they had twenty-four 
thousand regular Neapolitan troops ; and yet within a 
month the island of Sicily had been subdued. The 
brilliant and audacious leadership of their general, and 
the magnificent bravery of the red-shirts, carried every- 
thing before them ; though their success was greatly 
helped by the cowardice and incompetence of the 
Neapolitan command, and also by the goodwill of the 

95 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

civil population, who had grown thoroughly tired of the 
tyrannical government of their Bourbon king, Francis II. 

Having thus overrun Sicily, Garibaldi now crossed 
the Straits of Messina, invaded the Kingdom of Naples, 
and in September entered the capital city. Francis 
fled, and was declared to be deposed. 

So far everything had gone as Cavour wished, and 
his instrument, Garibaldi, had proved even more effec- 
tive than could have been hoped. But now the wielder 
of the instrument began to have misgivings; indeed, he 
had doubts as to whether this particular instrument 
was really his at all. For Garibaldi had gone so far 
that he felt encouraged to go much farther than was, 
at this juncture, altogether prudent ; moreover, it soon 
became apparent that he was inclined to cast Cavour's 
authority to the winds, and to follow the dictates of 
his own impulsive will. His program now was (1) to 
conquer the Papal States, (2) to occupy Rome itself, 
and (3) to drive the Austrians out of Venetia ; and when 
he had accomplished all this — if he ever did — it was by 
no means certain that he would hand over his conquests 
to the new Italian kingdom. 

In vain did Cavour urge moderation, and argue (l)that 
to occupy Rome would not only offend Napoleon, the 
recognized protector of the Pope, but would also 
shock the conscience of Christendom ; and (2) that to 
attack Austria under present circumstances would be 
to commit something very like national suicide. But 
Garibaldi proved obdurate ; he had not a drop of diplo- 
matic blood in his veins; and, as a ' whole hogger,' and 
a relentless foe to compromise, he determined to press 
boldly on. 

Cavour now saw that if the injudicious northward 
march of the red-shirts was to be checked, he must act 
at once, and act openly. Accordingly, Sardinian 
troops forthwith invaded the Papal States, which they 
experienced little difficulty in subduing ; they took care, 
96 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

however, to leave the portion of territory immediately 
about Rome — known as the Patrimony of St Peter — 
untouched. 

Continuing their southward course, the victorious 
Sardinians soon effected a junction with the army of 
Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel took command of the 
combined forces. Garibaldi, to whom the King's 
frank, soldier-like character especially appealed, was 
content to act in a minor capacity, and to sacrifice his 
own immediate ambitions to what he now considered 
the ultimate good of his country; and where he would 
never have given way to a diplomatist like Cavour, he 
was willing to submit to a soldier like Victor Emmanuel. 

Italy was now a united whole — save for Venetia in 
the north and Rome in the centre. In the February 
of 1861 the first general Italian Parliament met at Turin, 
the capital of Piedmont; when Victor Emmanuel, in 
compliance with the general wish, took the title of King 
of Italy. 

Italy a United Kingdom. — There were many hotheads 
who urged the new king to complete forthwith the work 
that had been so well begun, and to drive the Austrians 
out of Venetia and occupy Rome. Victor Emmanuel, 
however, clung to a prudent waiting policy, and in the 
end he got what he waited for. In the year 1866 there 
broke out a war between Prussia and Austria, when 
Italy entered into an alliance with Prussia ; and 
although the Italians did not play a very brilliant part 
in the affair — being defeated on land at Custozza and 
at sea off Lissa — their help proved so useful in dividing 
the strength of the Austrian attack that when Prussia 
finally crushed her rival she compelled the latter to 
give up Venetia to the Italian ally. 

There now remained an isolated Rome ; but as French 
troops continued to hold the city for the Pope, Victor 
Emmanuel would not, as yet, encourage the Roman 
people to join the national flag. At the commence- 
98 



THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

ment, however, of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, 
Napoleon was obliged to recall his Roman garrison in 
order to strengthen the home forces ; and no sooner did 
the French troops march out than the Italians marched 
in. The Pope protested, but to no effect. He was 
allowed to reside undisturbed in the Vatican ; but the 
great, historic wonder-city, lost to him, became hence- 
forth the capital of the now complete Italian Kingdom. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Write brief notes on the following : Lombardy, 
Venetia, the Compact of Plombieres, Solferino, Sardinia- 
Piedmont, Custozza. 

2. What do you know of Count Cavour? Contrast his 
character with that of Mazzini. 

3. Outline the chief events in the war between Sardinia 
and Austria. 

4. Give an account of Garibaldi's conquest of the Two 
Sicilies. 

5. When, and how, were the Austrians expelled from 
Venetia ? 

6. When, and how, were the Papal States finally incor- 
porated in the Italian Kingdom ? 



99 



CHAPTER XV 

BISMARCK'S THREEFOLD PLAN. STAGE I : 
BEGINNINGS OF PRUSSIAN EXPANSION 

THOUGH the year 1848, so far as revolutionary 
changes are concerned, had been more or less 
of a failure in Germany, it had left behind it 
one important result. For Prussia was no 
longer an absolute monarchy ; on the contrary, she had 
acquired a certain degree of constitutional government, 
and the people had now some voice in the national 
affairs. The Prussian king, however, the romantic and 
ineffective Frederick William IV, was content to let 
German affairs, outside his own immediate realm, 
remain very much at a standstill, and to leave un- 
touched the loose confederation of States that then 
existed. But in 1858 Frederick's unbalanced mind 
gave way, and his brother, afterward William I, ruled 
as regent in his stead; while, in 1861, the regent suc- 
ceeded to the throne on the death of his ill-fated 
brother. 

William I. — It was soon seen that the new king was 
a very different kind of person from his predecessor. 
He was no clever, fanciful dreamer, but a plain, practi- 
cal man, and a brave, bluff Prussian soldier. He had 
long looked with disfavor upon the policy of inaction 
which had lately kept Prussia in the background of the 
European Powers, and he was now determined to put 
an end to what he regarded as such a lamentable state 
of affairs. But his ambitions went much farther than 
100 



BEGINNINGS OF PRUSSIAN EXPANSION 

this, and extended not only to a strong and united 
Prussia, but to a strong and united Germany as well. 
This latter aim, however, he did not proclaim upon the 
housetops ; for, had his wide and far-reaching projects 
been made known, they would have met, at the very 
outset, with an opposition that might well have proved 
fatal. At first, therefore, he confined his attention 
entirely to his own kingdom of Prussia. And here it 
may be well to note the essential difference between the 
methods that have moulded modern France and those 
which consolidated modern Germany. In France, the 
constitutional changes have, for the most part, been 
initiated and continued by the people ; while in Ger- 
many they were largely started by the Government, 
backed by a powerful army. 

One of the first schemes that William I took in hand 
was the increase in numbers and efficiency of the instru- 
ment by which he meant to work his will, viz., the 
Prussian army ; for he believed that the national aspira- 
tions would never be realized by popular discussions 
and the paper resolutions of parliaments ; to make them 
effective they must be backed by organized force. But 
it would not be correct to say that William despised 
popular opinion ; on the contrary, he regarded it as a 
very useful, though not always clear-sighted, ally. 
Organized force, however, he considered to be the very 
backbone of national improvement. 

In his desire to strengthen the army he met with a 
most strenuous opposition from his Parliament, the 
Liberal majority of which, expressing themselves as 
averse to militarism, refused to authorize the expendi- 
ture of more money upon the supply, equipment, and 
training of soldiers. But the King was one of those 
rare individuals who know their own minds. What 
was still more, he meant to have his own way, with the 
consent of the Diet if possible, but if not, then with- 
out it. 

101 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Fortunately for the success of his plans, he had the 
valuable gift of being a first-rate judge of men ; and so, 
throughout the whole of his reign, he managed to select 
extremely capable instruments for the carrying out of 
his purposes. He never lit upon a happier choice than 
when he made Otto von Bismarck his prime minister. 
Bismarck was a man of iron will ; with a frankness, 
when it suited him, that was almost brutal ; keen insight 
into men and motives; and a conscience, to say the 
least of it, by no means over-scrupulous. To cap all, 
his nature was intensely practical ; and his judgment 
as to what particular thing should be done in order to 
bring about a particular effect was well-nigh unerring. 
With a man of Bismarck's calibre at hand for counsel 
and for practical assistance, King William might be 
expected to go far. He did go far; and he began by 
getting his own way in the matter of army reform — in 
spite of the Diet. With a strong Government whose 
decisions could be enforced by a strong army — and a 
Government, moreover, keenly solicitous for the wel- 
fare of its citizens, and with first-rate powers of 
organization — the material prosperity of Prussia in- 
creased by leaps and bounds. It was as though the 
King had said : " Obey me, and you shall live upon the 
fat of the land." This promise he duly kept; but he 
insisted upon the obedience. 

The Policy of ' Blood and Iron.' — It was not very long 
before the Prussians found their strong army come in 
useful. " The German problem," said Bismarck, 
" cannot be solved by parliamentary decrees, but only 
by blood and iron " — a speech which might very well 
have been made by one of our prehistoric ancestors 
accustomed to argue with a stone axe and to convince 
an opponent by knocking him on the head. But before 
entering upon the policy of blood and iron destined 
to make Prussia great and Germany a united whole, it 
was advisable to make sure that the other nations of 
102 



BEGINNINGS OF PRUSSIAN EXPANSION 

Europe would not interfere ; and, in this direction, a 
capital beginning was made with Russia. In 1863 
occurred a disastrous insurrection in Poland. This 
was eventually suppressed, and by helping to put it 
down Prussia gained the goodwill of the Czar, who 
would thus be likely to look with a more friendly eye 
upon Prussia's forthcoming schemes. 

What were these schemes ? They were, to put the 
matter briefly, three in number : 

1. To increase Prussian territory. 

2. To oust Austria — Prussia's only formidable rival 
— from the German Confederation. 

3. To weld the German Confederation into an Empire 
in which Prussian influence should be supreme. 

In the year 1863 this ambitious State set about the 
execution of the first of these designs, and she began in 
the following manner. 

At that time the two provinces of Schleswig and 
Holstein were under what we may term the overlord- 
ship of Denmark. They were not incorporated in the 
Danish kingdom in the same manner that an English 
county forms part of England ; on the contrary, each 
had a ruler and a government of its own, though both 
ruler and government were subordinated to the king 
and government at Copenhagen. Now in 1863 the 
Danish king Frederick II died, and was succeeded by 
Christian I; and the latter, dissatisfied with existing 
arrangements, determined to bind Schleswig and Hol- 
stein more firmly to the Danish Crown. When, how- 
ever, he attempted to do this, the provinces in ques- 
tion objected strongly. In both of them there were 
large numbers of Germans ; and they, not liking the idea 
of being cut off altogether from their brethren to the 
south, flatly refused to accept King Christian's plan. 

As a matter of course, the dispute aroused great 
interest among the German States, and there were con- 
flicting opinions as to how the matter ought to be 

103 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

settled. Prussia, however, had her opinion, and meant 
to maintain it against all comers. Accordingly, Bis- 
marck persuaded Austria to join him in the policy of 
armed intervention ; and in January of 1864 Prussian 
and Austrian troops, side by side, invaded the duchies. 
The Danes resisted, but, as they had no possible chance 
against two such powerful opponents, they were com- 
pelled to give way. In October they ceded Schleswig 
and Holstein to the victors, Prussia taking the former 
and Austria the latter. At the same time the little 
duchy of Lauenburg was made over to Prussia for a 
payment in money. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Write brief notes on the following : Frederick 
William IV, William I, Schleswig-Holstein. 

2. Sketch the character of Bismarck. 

3. What were the successive steps by which Bismarck 
proposed to put into operation his threefold plan ? 

4. Give an account of the conquest of Schleswig and 
Holstein. 

5. Outline the policy of William I. 



104 



CHAPTER XVI 

BISMARCK'S THREEFOLD PLAN. STAGE II : 
THE EXPULSION OF AUSTRIA 

SO far Bismarck's schemes had worked out very 
well, and Prussia, without any really serious pro- 
test from the great European Powers, had gained 
Schleswig and Lauenburg. The next proceeding 
was to drive Austria out of the German Confederation. 
There is an old saying which tells us that two mis- 
tresses in one house can never agree ; because each 
wishes to have her own way in the management of 
domestic affairs, and neither is willing to give way to 
the other. Austria and Prussia might be compared to 
two mistresses in one house ; each wished to have her 
own way in the management of the affairs of the Ger- 
man Confederation, and neither was willing to give way 
to the other. " Out you must go ! " Though Bis- 
marck was much too cautious to say this to Austria 
openly, he meant it all the same ; for he fully intended 
that Prussia, not Austria, should shape the policy of 
the united Germany of the future. 

In one sense this decision may be regarded as quite 
reasonable, for Austria was very far indeed from being 
a purely German State; in fact, as we have already 
learnt, there were four distinct divisions in it, viz., a 
German Austria, a Magyar Austria, a Slav Austria, and 
an Italian Austria ; and it seemed a bad arrangement 
altogether to have the German part of the Empire 
included in the German Confederation while the 

105 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Magyar, Slav, and Italian parts were excluded from it. 
The German Austrians, however, were not willing to 
allow this ; they wanted not only to keep up their con- 
nexion with their German brethren, but also to be the 
' elder brother,' that is, to have, as it were, the first 
voice in all family affairs ; at the same time they wished 
to hold and to rule the other parts of their Empire. 
We may thus say that they wished to be the mistress of 
two separate houses, the house of the German Con- 
federation and the house of the Austrian Empire. 

But how was Prussia to get rid of her rival ? That 
was the problem to which Bismarck now directed the 
energies of his powerful, unscrupulous mind. The 
situation was a delicate one, and required delicate 
handling. As yet, Prussia and Austria were, at least 
outwardly, firm friends, joined together in an alliance 
which had resulted in the invasion of the two Danish 
duchies and the subsequent division of the spoils. Few 
people, however, believed that this alliance could last ; 
for, underlying the surface agreement, was a smoulder- 
ing jealousy that might at any moment burst into 
devouring flame. 

Alluding to this jealousy, and comparing it to the 
cracks that sometime appear in the walls of a building, 
Bismarck made use of a striking expression. " We 
have," said he, " papered over the cracks." But 
papering over the cracks, though it hides, does not 
close them ; and soon the paper of pretence that hid, 
as it were, the cracks in the wall of Austro-Prussian 
friendship was torn away, and the gaping fissures 
stood disclosed ; in other words, the Austro-Prussian 
agreement soon came to an end. 

The breach of friendly relations was brought about 
by the conflicting interests of Prussia in Schleswig and 
Austria in Holstein. Prussia ruled her new possession 
in the Prussian manner, and Austria hers in the 
Austrian ; and when dissatisfaction arose in Schleswig 
106 



THE EXPULSION OF AUSTRIA 

Austria sympathized with the malcontents ; while 
Prussia, so to speak, returned the compliment by sym- 
pathizing with the hard lot of the Holsteiners. " You 
are aiding and abetting the rebels in Schleswig," was 
Prussia's complaint to Vienna. " You are aiding and 
abetting the rebels of Holstein," was Austria's remon- 
strance to Berlin. Doubtless both accusations were 
perfectly true ; but as neither government thought fit 
to confess its fault and mend its manners, the breach 
grew wider and wider, until at length the alliance 
between the two Powers came to a definite end. 

The War with Austria. — War now seemed inevitable. 
Neither of the two opponents, however, was quite ready 
to begin. As far as the army was concerned, Prussia 
was ready enough ; for, as she thoroughly believed in, 
and consistently acted upon, the principle that it is too 
late to get ready for a fight when you are face to face 
with the foe, she had made her preparations long before. 
With Austria, on the contrary, military provisions were 
in a lamentably backward state. 

But there was something to be considered besides the 
military situation. What would the other European 
Powers say to a war between Prussia and Austria ? 
Would they remain neutral ? Or would they take sides 
with one or the other of the combatants ? A good deal 
of correspondence took place between the various 
governments, and diplomatists were hard at work 
throughout the length and breadth of the Continent. 
It would take up too much time, and serve no useful 
purpose here, to tell of the attempts that were made to 
influence the attitude of Britain, France, Russia, and 
the rest of the nations. It is enough to say that all of 
these, with the exception of Italy, decided to remain 
neutral. The Italians, however, courted by both belli- 
gerents, at length threw in their lot with Prussia ; while 
Austria, for her part, secured the support of Bavaria, 
Saxony, and others of the German States. 

107 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

In the June of 1866 hostilities began ; and the cam- 
paign that ensued is especially interesting in that it 
presents the earliest example of how war may be waged 
under modern conditions. Prussian organization and 
the Prussian needle-gun had been at work in the Danish 
struggle of the preceding year, but on too small a scale 
to make it plain to the world that a great revolution 
had taken place in military science. Unfortunately 
for Austria, the revolution in military science did not 
extend to her ; for her soldiers were still armed with the 
old rnuzzle-loading rifles, and her generals had not laid 
their plans with the Prussian mathematical exactitude. 

Bismarck himself tells us that it was he who thought 
out the Prussian plan of campaign ; but due credit must 
be given to the able strategists Moltke and Roon, who 
worked out the details to a wonderful pitch of perfec- 
tion. 

Like some great, powerful, easy-running machine 
the Prussian army got to work, and without much 
difficulty prevented the enemy German States from 
combining their forces with those of the Austrians. 
From his office at Berlin Moltke directed the move- 
ments of the Prussian generals ; and, acting under his 
orders, they converged in three columns upon the main 
body of the Austrians, whom, on July 2, they succeeded 
in enclosing at Sadowa, in Bohemia. Each side num- 
bered slightly over 200,000 ; but the Prussians had a 
great advantage in equipment and discipline ; and the 
fight went so completely in their favor that when 
Moltke addressed King William in the words, " Your 
Majesty has won not only the battle, but the cam- 
paign," he spoke only the simple truth. It was of little 
consequence that the army of Prussia's Italian ally was 
defeated at Custozza, and her navy off Lissa ; these 
reverses were only of minor importance, for the strength 
of Austria had been broken. 

" On to Vienna ! " was now the cry of many of the 
108 



THE EXPULSION OF AUSTRIA 

Prussians. But Bismarck knew better than that. He 
was aware that a procession of Prussian troops through 
the streets of Vienna would be keenly resented by the 
proud-spirited Viennese, and above all things he did not 
want to arouse in them a feeling of implacable enmity. 
Other and far-reaching plans he had yet to execute, and 
in order that these should succeed he must be able, 
when the time came, to rely upon Austria's benevolent 
neutrality. So he let the vanquished down as lightly 
as he could, and, instead of " hitting a man when he's 
down," cried " Halt ! " to the march of the victorious 
Prussian battalions. 

Territorially, Austria did not suffer very heavily. 
But she had to give up Venetia to Italy and Holstein 
to Prussia. Furthermore, she had also to consent to 
her own final exclusion from the German Confederation. 
As for the German States that had sided with Austria, 
some of these paid dearly for attaching themselves to a 
losing cause. 

Summing up the results of the second stage of Bis- 
marck's Threefold Plan, we may say that these were 
as follows : 

1. Prussia's boundaries were enlarged by the inclu- 
sion of Schleswig, Holstein, Lauenburg, Hanover, 
Hesse, a portion of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the free city 
of Frankfort. 

2. All the States to the north of the river Main were 
formed into a North German Confederation, with 
Prussia as the acknowledged head. 

3. The States to the south of the river Main were 
formed into a South German Confederation that was 
quite independent of its northern neighbour. 

These arrangements were confirmed in the August of 
1866 by the treaty of Prague. 

After the defeat of Sadowa, many people were of the 
opinion that the Austrian Empire, a loose agglomera- 
tion of so many nationalities, would fall in pieces ; 

109 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

but such did not prove to be the case. For centuries 
Austria had been governed from Vienna as centre, and 
the dominating influence had been German. Now, 
however, all this was changed. Hungary secured a 
government of its own, and the river Leitha was fixed 
as the boundary between the two halves of the Haps- 
burg monarchy. The Emperor Francis Joseph thus 
wore two crowns, viz., that of Austria and that of Hun- 
gary; he was, in fact, a ' dual monarch.' Under this 
arrangement, Austria and Hungary were quite inde- 
pendent of each other — except for purposes common to 
the interests of both, viz., foreign affairs, finance, and 
the army ; for these three departments they had a 
common ministry. In spite of the discontent of the 
Slavs, who wished for an Austrian Confederation, with 
a State or States of their own on an equality with those 
of German and Magyar character, the dual monarchy 
continued to exist in a more or less stable condition. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. How did the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 
originate ? 

2. Give an account of the campaign which ended in the 
battle of Sadowa. 

3. State the three chief political results to Germany of 
the Prussian victory. 

4. What political changes also took place in Austria? 



HO 



CHAPTER XVII 

BISMARCK'S THREEFOLD PLAN. STAGE III : 
MISTAKES OF NAPOLEON 

TO understand how the events of the story 
narrated in this chapter came to be possible, 
it is necessary to turn for a few moments to 
the more recent doings of Napoleon III. His 
strange and varied career had reached its highest point 
in the Italian campaign of 1856, where he had reaped a 
military glory that made him immensely popular in the 
warlike nation over which he ruled. From 1856 onward, 
his course was one of steady decline. 

In the first place, he managed to lose much of the 
favor which the Italians had once showered upon him 
as their liberator from the Austrian yoke ; for it became 
more and more clear to everybody that he regarded the 
welfare of Italy as quite secondary to that of Napoleon ; 
in fact he was, as it were, playing his own game, and, 
in the main, helping Italy in order to help himself. 
Then too, by continuing to pose as the guardian of the 
Pope, and by keeping a garrison of French troops for 
his protection, Napoleon was preventing the Italians 
from attaining their dearest wish, viz., that of assuming 
the temporal power at Rome, and making the city of 
such rich historic associations the capital of their king- 
dom. 

But if he blundered badly in his attitude toward 
Italy, he blundered still more badly in his Mexican 
policy. From France to Mexico is a very far cry. 

Ill 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

What was it that took Napoleon to such a distant 
country? Well, nobody can justly blame him for 
taking an interest in the affairs of this American repub- 
lic, inasmuch as, in the year 1861, it had decided to 
suspend all payments to foreign creditors for two years ; 
and, as many of the creditors were Frenchmen, 
Napoleon was quite within his rights when he protested 
against a step of such bad commercial morality. In his 
protest he was joined by England and Spain, who were 
anxious to protect the English and Spanish creditors — 
just as France was anxious to protect those of France. 
The three governments concerned, viz., France, Eng- 
land, and Spain, landed troops to enforce the 
claims of their fellow-countrymen, and negotiations 
were opened up with a view to the settlement of 
the difficulty. 

At this point, however, Napoleon showed that he 
meant to do something more than insist on the payment 
of French debts. Indeed, he proceeded to overthrow 
the Republic, and in 1863 set up a monarchy in its 
place, under the Archduke Maximilian, brother of the 
Emperor of Austria. But the United States of America 
had something to say on that matter. Acting upon the 
principle laid down in the Monroe Doctrine, they 
refused to tolerate the interference of a European Power 
with the internal affairs of a part of the American Con- 
tinent. So they protested not only against Napoleon's 
proceedings, but also against the presence of his troops 
on their side of the water; and, at the close of the 
American Civil War then raging, great numbers of dis- 
banded American soldiers flocked to join the standard 
of the Mexican patriots opposing the scheme of 
monarchy. Afraid to risk a desperate struggle so many 
thousands of miles from his source of supplies, Napoleon 
gave way, and ordered his troops to sail for France, 
advising Maximilian to return with them. This brave, 
unfortunate man, however, rather than leave in the lurch 
112 



MISTAKES OF NAPOLEON 

those who had fought for his cause, remained behind — 
to be betrayed, tried by court-martial, and shot. 

For the madness of his Mexican adventure Napoleon 
had to pay dearly. He paid in the loss of prestige ; he 
had failed, and failed miserably ; and so he was dis- 
credited, not only in the eyes of his own people, but in 
the eyes of Europe as well. 

But in addition to paying in this general sense of a 
loss of prestige, he paid also in a particular case that 
was of great importance to himself and France. If two 
boys are quarrelling over a game of marbles, then is the 
time for any onlooker who considers that some of the 
stakes ought to be his, to snatch what he can get — 
while the disputants are engaged in their bout of fisti- 
cuffs, and the young rascals, busily occupied in 
pummelling each other, have neither time nor hands to 
tackle a third party. To these two boys we might 
compare Prussia and Austria ; and while these were 
quarrelling and fighting in 1866, the French onlookers 
would have liked very much to snatch some territory 
outside the boundaries of their Empire ; they would 
have especially liked a slice out of Germany sufficient 
to extend the borders of France up to the river Rhine. 
But, in a game of snatching, it is the army that has 
to be relied on for the actual grabbing; and, unless a 
nation has a strong army, she had perhaps better not 
try what is often a very dangerous experiment. Un- 
fortunately for French ambitions, the flower of the 
national troops were away in Mexico during the Austro- 
Prussian dispute, and so France was not able to make of 
the opportunity that use which she so ardently desired. 
It was, moreover, particularly galling that Prussia, 
between whom and France there existed a deep-rooted 
jealousy, should have come out of the scramble with 
territory greatly enlarged, while France herself had 
gained absolutely nothing. 

For this state of affairs Napoleon was much blamed 
H 113 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

by his subjects ; and they stirred him up — if he needed 
stirring up, which was perhaps doubtful — to demand 
compensation from Prussia ; but not a foot of land 
would Bismarck give up. When Napoleon realized 
this, he said, it may be somewhat plaintively, " At all 
events let me have little Luxemburg." 

Now this Duchy of Luxemburg was in a very curious 
position. By the Treaty of Vienna it had been included 
in the German Confederation ; at the same time, how- 
ever, it had been placed under the sovereignty of the 
King of Holland ; while Prussia had been granted the 
right of garrisoning the fortress of Luxemburg town. 
Add to this the facts that the sympathies of the inhabi- 
tants were mostly Belgian, and that the duchy had not 
been included in the new German Confederation of 1866, 
and you get a most strange and puzzling tangle of 
affairs, without any natural simplicity about it, and 
full of artificial complications. Could the situation in 
any way be straightened out ? And did Napoleon's 
suggestion tend to straighten it ? 

Growing Antagonism between France and Germany. 
— For his own part, the King of Holland, who did not 
see that this mixed-medley of a possession of his did 
him much good, was quite willing, given the consent of 
the Powers, to sell his rights in it to France. But to 
such a course Germany had a very decided objection. 
Indeed the proposal raised such a storm of Teutonic 
indignation that many people in the Northern Con- 
federation called upon the Government to take up arms 
against the nation that had the insolence to make such 
a demand. For Luxemburg was regarded as the gate 
of Lower Germany, and if it came into the possession of 
France, then France would have an easy means of 
invading German soil. The matter, however, was 
finally settled in 1867 by the Treaty of London, by 
which Luxemburg was declared to be neutral territory 
under the guardianship of the Powers; while the King 
114 



MISTAKES OF NAPOLEON 

of Holland was to dismantle the fortifications, and the 
Prussian garrison was to be withdrawn. 

The Luxemburg dispute rendered still more bitter 
the antagonism which had long existed between France 
and Germany, and the press in both countries did its 
best — or rather its worst — to inflame this lamentable 
feeling. So that Frenchmen who read the German 
papers were filled with what they regarded as righteous 
indignation at seeing their country vilified ; while Ger- 
mans who read French papers raged at the way in 
which they said they were caricatured. But just as 
there are two sides to every coin, so there are two sides 
to pretty nearly every question, and at least two sides 
to the character of every nation. The blind refusal to 
see this elementary fact — a refusal which breeds a sense- 
less, one-sided intolerance — was shortly to bring about 
great trouble between France and Germany ; and for 
this trouble the journalists and pamphleteers, both of 
France and Germany, were greatly to blame. 

Now Bismarck, though he believed that a war with 
France was imminent, nay, though he ardently desired 
it, was in no particular hurry to begin. In the first 
place, he had not completed the military reorganiza- 
tion of the States recently annexed by Prussia ; and 
secondly, when the war did come, he wanted a better 
pretext for justifying himself in the eyes of Europe than 
the Luxemburg dispute could possibly afford. 

Such an occasion was not long in turning up. In 
1870 the Spanish throne fell vacant, and the Spanish 
Parliament, the Cortes, offered the crown to Prince 
Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a distant rela- 
tive of William I of Prussia. Prince Leopold, after con- 
sulting with King William as head of the Hohenzollern 
family, decided to accept; but so furious were the 
French people at the idea of a Prussian prince becoming 
King of Spain that he eventually declined the proffered 
honor. Here the matter might very well have rested, 

115 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

but France was not content with what had already been 
gained. On the contrary, she demanded from King 
William that he would never, under any circumstances, 
permit Leopold again to become a candidate for Spanish 
royal honours. When William did not see his way to 
giving such a definite promise, France, on July 14, 1870, 
declared war — to Bismarck's intense joy. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. How did Napoleon III come to lose his popularity in 
Italy ? 

2. Describe the progress, and give the results, of 
Napoleon's Mexican adventure. 

3. What were the provisions of the Vienna Congress in 
respect to the Duchy of Luxemburg ? 

4. Why did the Germans object to Napoleon's acquiring 
this duchy ? 

5. What was the dispute in which the Franco-Prussian 
War of 1870 originated ? 



11$ 



CHAPTER XVIII 

BISMARCK'S THREEFOLD PLAN. STAGE III : 

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR AND THE 

CONSOLIDATION OF GERMANY 

IN the struggle that was now to ensue, Napoleon 
trusted that he would not be without allies, and his 
hopes extended in three different directions, viz., 
toward Italy, Austria, and the South German 
States. Every one of these disappointed him. 

In Italy, as we have already seen, his popularity had 
greatly declined ; and the Italians now agreed that, as 
they had already paid him — by the cession of Savoy and 
Nice — for what he had done for them, and, moreover, 
as in his dealings with Italy it was his custom to look 
to his own interests first, they were consequently under 
no obligations to come to his aid in his present diffi- 
culties. 

In Austria, though the defeat of 1866 still rankled, 
the moderation and good sense of Bismarck in softening 
the blow to the nation's pride now bore fruit; and the 
Dual Monarchy, although it would be too much to say 
that it was actually friendly to Prussia, was consider- 
ably less hostile than it might have been but for the 
previous action of the great Prussian minister. But 
even if such a thing as an alliance with France had been 
seriously contemplated, such an alliance would have 
been vetoed by the fact that there was for the time 
being a good understanding between Prussia and 
Russia; so that if Austria had attacked Prussia she 

117 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

would have laid herself open to invasion by her big 
eastern neighbour; and to expose herself at this parti- 
cular juncture to such a risk would have been neither 
more nor less than to court national suicide. 

As for the South German States, though these were 
Roman Catholic, and so might have been expected to 
assist a Roman Catholic Power against one that pro- 
fessed Protestantism ; and though they resented what 
they regarded as Prussia's excessive claims and 
domineering policy ; yet, in spite of these considera- 
tions, when it came to the push they threw in their lot 
with their blood-brothers. 

The situation gave rise to a complicated correspond- 
ence among the European Powers, as a result of which 
it became evident that France and Germany would have 
to fight their fight and settle their disputes with no 
help or interference from outside. Britain, however, 
demanded a guarantee as to the absolute neutrality of 
Belgium, and this was signed in August both at Paris 
and Berlin ; the two belligerents pledging themselves 
that neither would set foot on Belgian soil. 

The Unreadiness of France. — The French plan of 
campaign was to mass the bulk of the national forces 
on the upper Rhine, and to invade Southern Germany ; 
but, when the plan came to be put in operation, it was 
found that there were serious obstacles to its success. 
In the first place, the Government had calculated upon 
a large army in a state of complete preparation for the 
task that had been assigned to it. But in both these 
particulars there came a speedy disappointment, a 
shattering of fond illusions ; for, not only did the num- 
ber of available troops fall far short of the estimate 
made by the authorities, but it was found that there 
still remained a thousand and one details of organiza- 
tion to work out before efficiency could be thoroughly 
attained. In other words, the war machine was much 
smaller than had been anticipated ; and, before it could 
118 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

be driven forward with any chance of success, its works 
needed both mending and oiling. 

The Triumph of German Organization. — Then, too, 
there was another difficulty : there was, as it were, a 
lion in the path in the shape of the German army ; and 
this certainly did not intend to sit on its haunches and 
allow all the initiative to the enemy. If the French 
had their plan of campaign, so had the Germans. 
Moreover, the latter had made no miscalculations as to 
their numbers and preparedness. During the winter of 
1869 Moltke had carefully worked out his scheme until 
it was perfect to the smallest detail. From the sum 
total of soldiers in the whole army to the number of 
buttons on the uniform of a Pomeranian grenadier, 
everything was known, and known accurately; and 
every inch of the routes it was proposed to take had 
been surveyed beforehand. Accordingly, when, on 
July 16, the order for mobilization went out, within 
eighteen days every German battalion, with transport 
complete, had been mustered, and stood ready at its 
appointed place. Without waiting for the delayed 
advance of the French, the Germans pressed forward. 

To oppose them, there were two French armies : one, 
under Marshal MacMahon, stationed in Alsace; the 
other, under Marshal Bazaine, occupying Lorraine. 
On August 6 the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia 
came in touch with the army of MacMahon, and 
defeated it so heavily at Worth that it had to evacuate 
Alsace. The second French army now retreated toward 
the strong fortress of Metz, in which, after being 
severely handled in the murderous battle of Gravelotte, 
it was shut up. Half the German forces were now 
detailed to invest Metz and prevent the escape of 
Bazaine's imprisoned troops ; while the remainder 
marched away to meet MacMahon, who, having re- 
covered from the recent disaster of Worth, was coming 
along with the object of relieving Metz. 

119 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

MacMahon's intentions were good enough, but he 
had not the combination of strength and skill necessary 
for their execution. On September 1 was fought the 
battle of Sedan, where, after a terrible struggle, the 
French were completely surrounded ; and, ringed about 
by the guns of a greatly superior force, they were com- 
pelled to lay down their arms. Napoleon, who was 
present with his ill-fated men, and who, to do him 
justice, had fought bravely, gave up his sword to the 
King of Prussia, and was sent as a prisoner to Germany. 

The victorious half of the German army then pressed 
on to Paris, before which it arrived about the end of 
September. But Paris was strongly fortified, and, 
moreover, was in no mood for capitulation. On hearing 
of the catastrophe of Sedan, the city rose against the 
Imperial Government that had conducted operations 
with such gross mismanagement. Once more France 
was proclaimed a republic, and there was set up a 
Government of National Defence, the most prominent 
members of which were General Trochu, Jules Favre, 
and Gambetta. Of the three, Gambetta soon proved 
to be the master-spirit. His fiery patriotism and 
imperious character soon carried him to the head of 
affairs, and he was appointed Dictator. 

Escaping from Paris in a balloon, Gambetta strove 
hard to collect the troops scattered throughout the 
country, and to build up new armies that might first 
relieve Paris and Metz and then concentrate to drive 
the invaders off French soil. But the task was too 
great ; all efforts were of no avail ; and the hastily- 
organized levies were no match for the seasoned and dis- 
ciplined enemy. To make matters worse, on October 27 
Bazaine, with an army of 170,000 men and immense 
stores of war material, surrendered Metz ; and, as this 
set free the investing German forces, the position of 
France appeared hopeless. Realizing this, Paris, with 
death from starvation staring her in the face, sur- 
120 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

rendered on January 21, 1871, and the war, was at an 
end. On February 26 was signed a treaty of 
peace by which France ceded to her conquerors 
the districts of Alsace and Eastern Lorraine, and 
furthermore agreed to pay a war indemnity of five 
milliards of francs. 

Consummation of German Unity. — But the gains in 
money and in territory, substantial though these were, 
may be said to have been the least of the advantages 
which Germany reaped from the Franco-Prussian War. 
Of far greater importance was the bond of brotherhood, 
welded in the heat of conflict, that now served to bind 
the different States into a unity that promised to be 
permanent. Prussia, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and the 
rest had fought shoulder to shoulder for a common 
object ; and, in such a life-and-death struggle, mean and 
petty inter-State jealousy had been desperately 
wounded, if not killed outright. Why should we not 
always thus act together ? Such was the question that 
propounded itself to millions of German minds and 
stirred millions of German hearts. So every one of the 
States that had not already done so now joined the 
Confederation; and on January 18, 1871, in the great 
hall of the palace of Versailles, King William of Prussia 
was hailed as Emperor of Germany. 

The Constitution of the newly-formed Empire recog- 
nized twenty-five different States. But these States 
had by no means to give up all their former rights and 
privileges. On the contrary, each kept its own king, 
or prince, or duke, as the case might be, and its own 
Parliament, which exercised what we may term a kind 
of home rule ; and it was only in questions of imperial 
interest that the States took combined action. The 
governments of each of the twenty-five sent represen- 
tatives to a central upper house, the Bundesrath ; while 
the people elected members to a central lower chamber, 
the Reichstag. Between them, Bundesrath and Reichs- 

121 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

tag were to make the laws; but the King of Prussia, 
as Emperor of Germany, head of the German Confedera- 
tion, and supreme director of the Prussian army, was 
responsible for executing the laws. It is thus plain that 
the authority of the Emperor, paramount throughout 
Germany, rested mainly upon the military power of the 
King of Prussia. 

Three further consequences of the war remain to be 
mentioned : 

1. Before the Third French Republic could succeed 
in establishing itself firmly, the extreme revolutionists 
of Paris tried to set up a government of their own, 
which they called the Commune, and they actually held 
possession of the situation for two months. At the end 
of that period, however, the patriot Thiers despatched 
Marshal MacMahon with a considerable force against 
the insurgents. Terrible street-fighting took place 
before the Commune could be overthrown; houses and 
public buildings were set on fire by the defeated Com- 
munists ; reprisals, arrests, and executions followed ; 
the whole forming a very black page in the annals of a 
fair city. After a while, however, France settled down, 
and set herself bravely to the task of repairing the 
destruction that had been wrought by the war. Right 
well was the task performed, so that peace and pros- 
perity were not long in returning to what was, and is, 
essentially a thrifty and hard-working people. 

2. Russia took advantage of the war by refusing to 
carry out the obligations imposed upon her by the Con- 
gress of Paris ; she announced that she no longer held 
herself bound by the terms of the Paris Treaty, and 
that she intended, if and when she desired, to construct 
arsenals on the shores of the Black Sea, and to sail a 
fleet of warships on its waters. 

3. Italy acquired Rome as her capital city. The 
details of this acquisition have been set forth in a pre- 
vious chapter. 

122 




123 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Napoleon III hoped to have Italy, Austria, and the 
South German States as allies in his war with Prussia. Why 
did these fail him ? 

2. What was the French plan of campaign ? What were 
the chief obstacles to its success ? 

3. Outline the course of the war up to the battle of Sedan. 

4. Outline the progress of the war from the battle of 
Sedan to the capitulation of Paris. 

5. What indemnity did the Germans obtain in territory 
and in money ? 

6. Say what you know about the Constitution of the 
German Empire proclaimed at Versailles in January 1871. 

7. Name three further consequences of the war, in 
France, Russia, and Italy respectively. 

8. Write brief notes on Marshal Bazaine, Marshal Mac* 
Mahon, Gambetta, and Moltke. 



124 



CHAPTER XIX 
AFTER THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

THE Franco-German War of 1870 struck a 
deadly blow at the belief that the whole of 
the Continent might be welded into a Con- 
federated Europe, and it proclaimed the prin- 
ciple of nationality as triumphant over that of a 
European community. In other words, it asserted that 
a strong nation had a right to satisfy its national 
ambitions by force of arms and at the expense of a 
weaker neighbour. Well, in this case the strong nation 
had undoubtedly conquered, and had taken what it 
wanted ; it remained, however, to be seen whether the 
results of the conquest would be permanent. " We 
have," said Moltke in the Reichstag shortly after the 
conclusion of -peace, " earned in the late war respect, 
but hardly love. What we have gained by arms in six 
months we shall have to defend by arms for fifty years." 
You remember the lines : 

The good old rule 
Sufficeth them, the simple plan, 
That they should take who have the power, 
And they should keep who can. 

That is the ' law ' of * might is right.' It was the law 
of our prehistoric ancestors, but unfortunately it did 
not perish with them ; indeed it is, and has been, the 
law of thieves and robbers always and everywhere, no 
matter whether the thieves and robbers be individual 
men or individual nations. But it is well to bear in 

125 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

mind that the man who takes away goods from his 
neighbor, against the latter's will and against his sense 
of justice, does not, as Moltke so truly said, earn his 
neighbor's gratitude ; and the nation that takes away 
territory or other advantage from a neighboring 
nation, against the latter's will and sense of justice, 
does not, as Moltke so truly said, earn that nation's 
love. On the contrary, the man deprived of his goods 
keeps a sharp look out for an opportunity of getting 
them back again ; and the nation deprived of its posses- 
sions keeps a sharp look out for an opportunity of 
getting those back too. Consequently the robber indi- 
vidual must always, as it were, remain on guard, and 
remaining on guard is an expensive process both to 
nerve and pocket ; and the robber nation must remain 
on guard too, which is also expensive both to the 
national nerve and the national pocket, especially the 
latter. So from 1870 onward Germany felt compelled 
to spend more and more money on her army ; and the 
other nations followed her example, until at length 
Europe might almost be termed an armed camp ; and 
the nerves of the nations were quivering with the 
anticipation of coming wars ; and the burden of the 
armaments fell upon the poor taxpayer, until they 
threatened to become so heavy as to grind him into the 
dust. 

The Spirit of France.— Now Bismarck, with all his 
cleverness, had been greatly mistaken in his estimate 
of France. He had thought (1) that the payment of 
the huge war indemnity would ruin the prosperity of 
the country for perhaps generations to come, and (2) 
that the destruction of her military system would be so 
complete as to make France a second-rate Power for 
a like period. Both these estimates, however, proved 
very wide of the mark. No one, we are told, is ever 
finally conquered till his spirit is broken ; and what is 
true of men is just as true of nations. Well, the spirit 
126 



AFTER THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

of the gallant French was certainly far from being 
broken; consequently they were far from being 
conquered ; indeed, if anybody had suggested to them 
that their greatness as a nation had passed away, they 
would have laughed the idea to scorn. So, acting upon 
the brave, indomitable motto of ' never say die,' they 
at once set about the work of preparing for the time 
when they could once more ' come up smiling ' ; and, 
long before the time stipulated by the Treaty of Frank- 
fort, they had paid the immense sum due to Germany ; 
also, by the year 1875, the military reorganization of 
the country had been such as to produce, at need, an 
army of over two million men. 

Now to pay her debts, and to reorganize her army, 
were tasks upon which the whole of France was united 
as one man ; for all were agreed that until these achieve- 
ments were accomplished national self-respect would be 
impossible. In matters of internal government, how- 
ever, there was much difference of opinion. Some 
people wanted a king, but could not agree as to who 
that king should be ; others wanted a republic. Even- 
tually, in 1875, the Republic, as at present constituted, 
was formally established. By what was known as the 
New Constitution : 

(1) The President was to be appointed for seven 
years, with power to appoint and dismiss Ministers. 

(2) A Senate, or Higher Chamber, was to be elected 
for nine years, one third renewable every three years. 

(3) A Chamber of Deputies was to be elected by 
universal suffrage and for four years. 

(4) The sum of 9000 francs a year was to be paid to 
each member of both Houses — an amount, however, 
largely increased a few years ago. 

The Spirit of Germany. — In Germany too various 
changes took place after the conclusion of the war. 
Previously each State had its own laws, and its own 
methods of administering them ; so that on one side of 

127 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

a State boundary the punishment for a certain crime 
might be twice as heavy as on the other; and trial by 
jury might be in force in one district, while secret 
tribunals might be customary in another. Indeed, so 
great was the divergence in these matters that we are 
told there were as many as forty-six separate and 
distinct law-codes within the borders of the German 
Confederation. Such a state of affairs naturally led to 
much confusion and injustice ; and, though it was found 
impossible to sweep away the medley all at once, 
Imperial laws and methods of procedure, binding upon 
the whole of the Empire, were gradually substituted 
for the forty-six local codes and courts. 

In trade and commerce, too, great developments took 
place. An Imperial Bank, an Imperial Post-Office, and 
a common coinage were established ; and the railways 
were put, for the most part, under State control. Bis- 
marck would have liked every railway to be the pro- 
perty of the Empire ; but, as each State wished to keep 
the management of its own particular lines, anything 
like a thoroughly national scheme could not be carried 
out. It is, however, important to note that the Imperial 
Government secured rights over all German railways 
when these were needed for military purposes. 

Of course the Imperial Government, like every 
man and every body of men, needed money for 
necessary expenses ; and the money had to be 
obtained by means of some sort of taxation. Now 
there are two kinds of taxes, called respectively 
direct and indirect. Income-tax is a direct tax, 
because the man who pays has to pay direct to 
the Government ; he receives a paper — which he is 
seldom glad to see — demanding a certain sum, and 
this sum he, the taxpayer, must pay direct to a 
Government official. 

On the other hand, the tax on tea is an indirect tax. 
Note how this works out in practice. Suppose I am 
128 



AFTER THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

a tea merchant, and that I make a contract with a tea- 
grower in India, who agrees to deliver at my home port 
a certain quantity of his produce for twenty-five cents 
a pound. The tea arrives, and I pay for it. But do 
you suppose that without any further proceedings I 
am allowed to take it away from the docks ? By no 
means. Up steps a man in uniform, a custom house 
officer, and tells me, in effect, that before I can remove 
my tea I must pay, say, another twenty-five cents a 
pound. This payment is called duty, and goes to the 
Government. Very well, I pay the second quarter, take 
away my tea, and distribute it among my numerous 
stores — for I am in a large way of business. Into one 
of these stores enters a customer, and says, " A pound 
of tea, please." If it were not for the customs duty, 
I should charge the lady twenty-five cents plus my own 
expenses and profit ; as it is, however, I put on another 
twenty-five cents for the duty. So, you see, though I 
have already paid this quarter to the Government, I 
get it back again from the customer ; and it is thus the 
customer who pays the tax, though in a roundabout or 
indirect manner. You can see now that the Government 
charge on the tea makes tea dearer ; similarly, any 
customs duties, that is, duties paid on goods imported 
from abroad, make those goods dearer too. A country 
where there were no customs duties would be an entirely 
free trade country; and a country which imposes 
customs duties is, to that extent, practising the system 
of protection — in so far as the imported goods can be 
produced at home, and the home producer consequently 
protected. I should like, however, to make this latter 
point quite clear. Customs duties, as you see, bring in 
a revenue to the Government. But when, in imposing 
those duties, there is a twofold object in view, viz., not 
only to bring in revenue but also to protect certain 
trades or industries from foreign competition, such a 
system is termed protection. Statesmen and economists 
i 129 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

are still disputing as to which is the better system, free 
trade or protection, but it is well that you and I should 
at least understand the meaning of the terms. 

Bismarck was a Protectionist, and obtained much of 
the money necessary for carrying on the Imperial 
Government by imposing customs duties, especially on 
manufactured goods and agricultural produce. In this 
manner he gained the goodwill of the manufacturers 
and the farmers, who were enabled now to charge 
higher prices than they would have been able to obtain 
if there had been free competition with other countries. 
Of course goods which merely passed from one German 
State to another were not liable to customs duties ; 
these were paid only at the German frontier, and on 
articles coming from abroad. States which are thus 
united on the subject of foreign duties are said to 
belong to a Customs Union, for which the German name 
is ' Zollverein.' 

Five other matters are worthy of note : 

1. The army was steadily increased, both in numbers 
and efficiency. 

2. A long and bitter dispute, the Kultur-kampf , or 
fight about religion and learning, broke out between the 
Government and the Roman Catholic Church. 

3. The Socialist movement spread very rapidly. 

4. A system of State insurance against sickness, acci- 
dent, and old age was established. 

5. And last, but very far indeed from being the least, 
from the year 1870 may be said to date the commence- 
ment of a remarkable change in the German character. 
Formerly, the people had been marked by simplicity of 
tastes and homely, pious lives, and their great men 
had been chiefly poets, musicians, prose-writers, philo- 
sophers, and persons of deep learning; now, however, 
they began to put a much higher value upon riches and 
the bodily comforts and luxuries that riches can bring ; 
moreover, from being gentle, humble, and peace-loving 
130 



AFTER THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 

they gradually became rough, overbearing, and far too 
full of the war spirit. The change, however, was much 
more evident in the South than in the North ; for in 
the North Prussia had long been drifting away from 
the old German ideals. Perhaps it was her example 
that worked most of the mischief; for, just as leaven 
will change the whole appearance of the flour in which 
it works, so the example of Prussia may have changed 
the whole character of Germany as a nation. We 
might sum the matter up by saying that whereas, 
formerly, the Germans as a body had glorified 
spiritual riches, now they began to glorify material 
riches — and military success. Indeed one of their 
writers, Dr Rein, has some very suggestive words 
on this point. " We Germans," he says, " have 
ceased to be a nation of thinkers, of poets and 
dreamers ; we aim now only at the domination and 
exploitation of Nature." 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. " Might is right." Is this principle true in the 
relations of States with each other? If not, why not? 

2. " Never say die." How did the French nation 
exemplify this motto in the time of adversity following 
their defeat ? 

3. Outline the new French Constitution. 

4. What internal changes took place in Germany after the 
war of 1870? 

5. What do you understand by the terms direct 
taxation, indirect taxation, Free Trade, Protection? 

6. Explain the term Zollverein. 



131 



CHAPTER XX 
THE EASTERN QUESTION 

THE rapid recovery of France was viewed with 
something akin to alarm in Germany, and 
many among the military party in that 
country clamored for another war, in which 
France might be crushed once for all, and before she 
became powerful enough to venture upon a policy of 
revenge for her recent humiliation. Bismarck, how- 
ever, refused to listen to these counsels; and perhaps 
the chief reason why he turned a deaf ear, was the con- 
viction that a second, and unprovoked, attack upon 
the fallen foe would not be tolerated by other 
Powers, especially Britain and Russia. But he 
took what he believed to be a far better way of 
rendering France harmless ; he succeeded in form- 
ing a great coalition from which she was expressly 
excluded. 

In Russia the Nihilists were very active ; in Germany, 
Socialism was rampant ; and against these and other 
forces of revolution it seemed well that monarchy 
should combine. When Bismarck put these facts, and 
the conclusions to be drawn from them, before the Czar 
and the Austrian sovereign in 1872, these agreed to join 
him in what was called the League _of,__ the__Xhree 
Emperors — an alliance into whfcTTTEalywas afterward 
admitted. Republican and revolutionary France was 
of course left out in the cold, and, as long as she 
remained thus isolated, she would never dare to attack 
132 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 

Germany. Such was Bismarck's artful scheme, and, 
for the time being, it succeeded. 

But the League of the Three Emperors was not 
destined to last for ever; indeed, a new phase of the 
Eastern question was soon to break it up. At first, 
Bismarck had been able to persuade the Czar that it was 
more important to combine against revolution than to 
quarrel over the fragments of nations in the Balkan 
Peninsula. " Why should we bother about squabbles 
in the house of our neighbors, when troubles in our 
own home call for all our attention?" Such was 
Bismarck's argument, and it was very good so far as it 
went ; but it did not go far enough. The Czar might 
very well have replied : " Yes, but what if my neigh- 
bors are my first cousins, and some unscrupulous 
ruffian is ill-treating them ? Am I justified in sitting 
snug at home while my blood-relations are being 
abominably misused ? " 

Balkan Affairs. — Even so absolute a monarch as the 
Czar of all the Russias soon found that a policy of non- 
interference in Balkan affairs would not be tolerated 
by his subjects, submissive though these usually were. 
They were Slavs, and the Balkan peoples were largely 
Slavs ; and it would be base for the former to abandon 
the latter to the oppression of the Turkish tyrant. 
Moreover, the word ' Slav ' means ' glorious.' Why 
should not all the Slavs in Europe combine to form a 
huge, glorious empire ? Why should there not be one 
united Pan-Slav nation ? German racial unity had 
become a fact ; Italian racial unity had become a fact ; 
why should not Slav racial unity become a fact too ? 
It was such thoughts as these that now filled the minds 
and stirred the hearts of the Russian people ; so that, 
even if the Czar had been unwilling to take action, he 
would probably have been swept away by the flood of 
national sentiment. Pan-Slavism, from the White Sea 
to the Mediterranean, was enthusiastically taken up ; 

133 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

and Russian agents were found everywhere among the 
Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula urging them to cast off 
the Turkish yoke. 

It was perhaps chiefly this danger, viz., that of a Slav 
outburst, which called into existence in Turkey a new 
party, that of the Young Turks. The leader of the 
Young Turks was Midhat Pasha ; and the object of the 
movement was to knit closely together all the Moham- 
medans of Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Egypt, 
and so to oppose a threatening Pan-Slavism by a defen- 
sive Pan-Islamism. If this could be done, then the 
Sultan might hope to shake off, once for all, the grip 
of the European Powers, and to rule his Christian sub- 
jects as he pleased. 

In 1875 a rising took place in Herzegovina, and volun- 
teers from Montenegro and Serbia joined the insurgents. 
After suffering several defeats, the Turks offered to 
make various reforms in their Christian provinces. The 
rebels, however, scoffed at these promises, which they 
regarded as utterly untrustworthy. Dissatisfaction 
spread, and it seemed as though the Balkan Peninsula 
would soon be ablaze. 

For Austria the situation was now full of peril. She 
had many Slav subjects ; and as these were not allowed 
to exercise the same political rights as the Magyars and 
the Germans — indeed they were very much under the 
thumb of the two dominant peoples — they were deeply 
dissatisfied with their position, and, as it were, a spark 
might set them aflame. Such a spark the doctrine of 
Pan-Slavism could easily prove, and a revolt of the 
Austrian Slavs would possibly mean the disruption of 
the Dual Monarchy. As, therefore, it was to the 
interests of Russia, as a Slav nation, to encourage the 
Slavs of the Balkans in their attempt to shake off 
Turkish rule, so it was to the interests of Austria to 
put her foot down on such an attempt as a bad example 
to her own Slav subjects. 
134 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 

Moreover, Austria felt herself hemmed in. North- 
ward, she had no chance of expansion, for Germany 
and Russia barred the way ; and the only possible field 
for acquiring fresh territory lay to the south. Very 
glad indeed would she have been to push southward, 
and to find more room for her increasing population ; 
more especially glad to gain a readier access to the 
Adriatic, and maybe the Mediterranean, for, compared 
with her size, her coast-line was extremely short. Now 
so long as the Balkan provinces were discontented and 
disunited, the Austrian hope of territorial expansion 
might some day be satisfied ; with a great Pan-Slav 
combination, all such ambitious designs were bound 
to fail. 

It will thus be seen that, for two reasons, Austria 
thought it best to set her face against Pan-Slavism, 
with its consequent increase of Russian influence in the 
Balkans. Summing up these reasons briefly, we may 
say that they were that (1) a realization of Slav national 
ambitions might, by stirring up disaffection among the 
Slavs of the Empire, lead to the latter's disruption, and 
(2) Pan-Slavism meant a permanent block to Austrian 
expansion. 

On the Balkan question, therefore, it is evident that 
the interests of Russia and Austria were antagonistic ; 
and, in the event of a dispute between these countries, 
it might be regarded as pretty certain that Germany 
would take sides with Austria — for blood is thicker than 
water. For a while, however, the danger of such wide 
international complications blew over; and in 1875 
Russia, Austria, and Germany conjointly drew up the 
' Andrassy Note,' which called upon Turkey not only 
to tolerate and recognize the Christian religion, but 
also to grant to the Christian population certain rights 
which had been hitherto denied them. Fair play in 
matters of religion, and fair play in matters of race : 
these were the two demands of the note, and surely they 

135 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

were quite reasonable. Turkey promised some, though 
not all, of the desired concessions ; but then — as usual 
— she made little or no attempt to carry out the reforms 
to which she had pledged herself. Meanwhile, the 
insurrection was spreading; and, to make matters 
worse from a Turkish point of view, there were internal 
squabbles between the Sultan and the party of Young 
Turks. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What was the League of the Three Emperors ? What 
were the chief purposes it was intended to serve ? 

2. Explain the terms Pan-Germanism, Pan-Slavism, 
Pan-Islamism. 

3. Why were the interests of Austria and Russia in the 
Balkans considered to be antagonistic ? 



136 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR AND THE 
TREATY OF BERLIN 

BELIEVING that their opportunity of securing 
complete independence had now come, Serbia 
and Montenegro, in the summer of 1876, 
declared war against Turkey, but, after a few 
initial successes, were so heavily defeated that they 
asked for the intervention of the European Powers. 
But anything approaching efficient intervention was not 
as yet feasible ; for, though the Powers saw clearly 
enough that the state of affairs in the Sultan's Christian 
provinces was well-nigh intolerable, they held different 
opinions as to what was the proper remedy to apply. 
If half a dozen doctors are called in to prescribe for a 
sick man, and each, in consultation with the others, 
recommends a different medicine, what is the poor 
patient to do ? Who can blame him if he " throws 
physic to the dogs " — until the doctors can manage to 
agree ? The Sultan and the European Powers might be 
compared to the sick man and his doctors ; and the 
Sultan, quite naturally, refused to take his medicine. 
Very possibly he would have refused even had the 
Powers been unanimous — for he could be very stubborn 
when he liked. 

In England, though the conscience of the people had 
been aroused by the terrible massacre of thousands of 
unoffending Christians — the scandalous ' Bulgarian 
atrocities ' — the Government still clung to its time- 

137 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

honored policy of preserving the integrity of the Otto- 
man Empire, and was unwilling to take part in any 
scheme of intervention that might have gone to the 
length of dismemberment. 

Thus, though the Powers protested, and sent their 
* Andrassy Note,' they did not, as a body, proceed 
further. But what they as a body refused to do — that 
is, to intervene in an active manner — one of them took 
boldly in hand. Failing to get a sufficient guarantee 
from the Porte that the suggested reforms would be 
carried out, and tired of fruitless and long-drawn-out 
negotiations, Russia, in April 1877, declared war on 
Turkey, in order, as the Czar said, " to obtain by force 
what the united efforts of the Powers had been unable 
to obtain by persuasion." 

As the result of an agreement with Rumania, the 
Russian army was permitted to pass through Ru- 
manian territory, and was thus, without opposition, 
enabled to take possession of the left bank of the 
Danube. There, however, it found itself face to face 
with a force of 200,000 Turks encamped on the other 
side of the river, and the problem of how to cross a 
wide, unfordable stream in the presence of such for- 
midable resistance was a serious one. The situation 
was saved by a well-conceived and ably executed feint. 
A considerable body of Russian troops, under General 
Zimmermann, marched down into the Dobrudja ; and, 
thinking that the crossing was to be attempted in 
this quarter, the main body of the Turks went off to 
meet it. But the bulk of the Russians, under the 
Grand Duke Nicholas, had remained behind ; and 
now, finding themselves opposed by only a few 
battalions, they easily crossed the Danube, and 
occupied Sistova. 

What were the Russians to do next ? As we have 
already seen, the main Turkish army was facing 
Zimmermann, and, according to the recognized autho- 
138 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

rities on warfare, the proper course was to attack the 
main army first. This, however, the Grand Duke 
did not do ; for he had a plan which, if it could 
only be worked out according to his calculations, 
would probably bring the struggle to a quick and 
glorious end. 

Encamping on the south bank of the river, where the 
presence of so large a body of Russians might be 
expected to hold in check any westward movement of 
the Turks in the neighborhood of the Dobrudja, and 
feeling sure that his lines of communication were now 
safe, the Grand Duke despatched General Gourko, a 
brilliant cavalry leader, with instructions to dash 
across the Balkan Mountains and capture Con- 
stantinpole. 

Gourko succeeded in crossing the Balkans, came 
triumphantly into Rumelia, and found the way open 
for a straight swoop on Adrianople and the capital. 
But the way did not remain open long. In Montenegro 
was a second Turkish army under Suleiman Pasha ; 
and Suleiman, when he heard of Gourko's raid, did not 
let the grass grow under his feet. Embarking at 
Antivari, and coming round by sea, he landed at Dedea- 
gatch, hurried on by rail, and flung his troops across 
the raider's path. Gourko, defeated in several 
encounters, retreated, and was compelled to give up all 
his audacious conquests with the exception of the 
Shipka Pass. 

Meanwhile the main body of the Russians was faring 
badly in the north ; for the Turks were now led by a 
new and more active commander-in-chief, Mehemet Ali. 
To the Bulgarian town of Plevna the Grand Duke sent 
his right wing, with orders that this important centre 
of communications should be occupied. But when the 
Russians arrived they found they had been forestalled ; 
for Osman Pasha, with 40,000 men and 90 guns, had 
already entrenched himself there ; and attack after 

139 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

attack, delivered with appalling loss to the assailants, 
quite failed to dislodge him. 

Had the main body of the Turks now taken a vigorous 
offensive, they might have succeeded in driving the 
Russians back across the Danube. But they omitted 
to seize their golden opportunity ; they hung back 
where they should have pressed forward ; and so they 
gave the Russians plenty of time to bring up reinforce- 
ments. 

Of this chance the latter took advantage, and, collect- 
ing at Sistova an army 300,000 strong, they prepared 
to reduce Plevna. As, however, they despaired of 
taking by assault a place which had now been made 
into a very strong fortress, they resolved to reduce it 
by famine. The command of the investing force was 
given to Todleben, the defender of Sebastopol ; and, as 
Osman Pasha was not provisioned for a long siege, 
hunger forced him, after an ineffectual attempt to cut 
his way out, to capitulate. 

The Russians now felt free to continue their south- 
ward march. Suleiman Pasha, who had superseded 
Mehemet Ali, hurried down with 130,000 men to bar 
their advance, but failed to stop the tide, and was 
forced to retire. On January 20 the advance-guard of 
the invaders reached Adrianople. Turkish resistance 
was completely broken. 

Russia had conquered. But what terms did she 
intend to make with the vanquished foe ? That foe was 
now at her mercy. Would the terms be of a drastic 
nature ? On that point the European Powers meant 
to have something to say ; and, rather than risk 
another war with far more formidable opponents than 
Turkey, Russia consented to refer the matter to the 
consideration of an international congress. She did 
this all the more readily because she believed that her 
attitude during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 had 
earned her the whole-hearted support of Germany. 
140 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR 

Meanwhile, before the proposed international con- 
gress could be held, Russia had embodied her demands 
in the Treaty of San Stefano, March 3, 1878 ; but the 
conditions were of so far-reaching a character as to 
raise alarm among the governments of the Great 
Powers. 

On June 13 the Treaty of San Stefano was laid before 
the Congress of Berlin, -over which Bismarck presided, 
and there its provisions were much modified — to the 
bitter disappointment of Russia, who felt that her gains 
now were no fair price for her expenditure of blood and 
treasure, and who, moreover, regarded the German 
lack of sympathy, as manifested at the congress, as 
distinctly ungrateful. The chief articles of the amended 
treaty, which is known to history as the Treaty of 
Berlin, were as follows : 

— 17 Russia was to gain Bessarabia from Rumania, 
and to keep Kars and Batoum in Asia. 

2. Rumania was to be compensated for the loss of 
Bessarabia by the cession of the Dobrudja from Bul- 
garia. 

3. Serbia was to be territorially enlarged at the 
expense of Bulgaria. 

4. Access to the Adriatic Sea at Antivari was to be 
given to Montenegro. 

5. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro were to be 
independent and sovereign. 

6. Bulgaria Proper was not to extend southward 
beyond the Balkan range. 

7. The province of Eastern Rumelia was to be more 
or less under Turkish control. 

8. Austria was to preserve order in Bosnia and Herze- 
govina for an indefinite period. 

9. Russia was to receive a war indemnity of 
200,000,000 roubles. 

10. Turkey was to permit religious liberty, and to 
make wide reforms in government. 

141 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What reasons did Russia give for declaring war against 
Turkey in 1877 ? 

2. How did the Russians succeed in crossing the 
Danube ? 

3. Describe Gourko's raid. 

4. Trace the progress of the war from Gourko's raid to 
the fall of Plevna. 

5. Give the chief provisions of the Treaty of Berlin. 



142 



CHAPTER XXII 
LATER BALKAN DEVELOPMENTS 

IN 1879 a German prince, Alexander of Batten- 
berg, was elected King of Bulgaria. This honor 
he accepted ; but, though he received a warm wel- 
come at the hands of his new subjects, he soon 
found that his crown was likely to prove a thorny one. 
No man, we are told, can serve two masters ; and at 
this time there were two masterful powers striving for 
supremacy in Bulgaria. One of these acted on the 
motto of " Bulgaria for the Bulgars," and was led by 
the great patriot Stambuloff ; the other worked to make 
the country practically a vassal of Russia. At first 
Russian influence was predominant ; Russian officials 
filled the chief positions both in civil and military 
affairs ; and it seemed as though Bulgaria had escaped 
from the thraldom of the Turk only to fall into the grip 
of the Russian. Alexander began his reign by trying 
to please the Russian taskmaster, while, at the same 
time, he tried to conciliate the patriots ; of course he 
fell, as it were, between two stools, and lost favor 
with both of the opposing parties. 

Two years later Greece, who had been much disap- 
pointed that the terms of the Berlin Treaty had given 
her no territorial increase, was partially satisfied by the 
cession from Turkey of Thessaly and a portion of 
Epirus. 

In 1885 Eastern Rumelia was united to Bulgaria. 
The revolution, if revolution it could be called, was 

143 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

quite bloodless. It was natural that the Bulgars south 
of the Balkans should wish to join their kinsmen to 
the north of that range ; and the Turks found them- 
selves compelled to acquiesce in the arrangement. The 
chief opponent to the change was the Czar. In a pre- 
vious chapter we have told how he fought to liberate 
the small Balkan States, with their Christian popula- 
tion and their large proportion of Slav inhabitants, from 
the rule of the Turk. For this work he expected the 
gratitude of the people for whose freedom he had 
labored so hard; and at first this gratitude was by no 
means wanting. 

By and by, however, the liberated nations began to 
suspect that their liberator had worked quite as much 
for his own advantage as for theirs, and so their grati- 
tude more or less died away. The Rumanians were 
indignant that they had been compelled to give up 
Bessarabia, for which they did not consider the acquisi- 
tion of the Dobrudja an equivalent; and now the 
Bulgars feared that their liberation was only a prelude 
to the overlordship of the Czar. That mighty 
potentate would have been quite willing to agree 
to the union of Bulgaria with Rumelia, if only 
he might have been acknowledged as a kind of 
Grand Duke of the conjoined provinces ; but, as 
the people concerned would not acquiesce, the Czar 
objected to the increase of an independent Power 
so near to his southern boundaries. His objections, 
however, proved of no avail ; they were overruled, 
and the greater Bulgaria was soon an accomplished 
fact. 

But no sooner was the fact accomplished than King 
Milan of Serbia put in a claim for compensation. Bul- 
garia, he argued, had secured a large accession of terri- 
tory, therefore it was only fair that Serbia should have 
a share of the good things going ; so he demanded that 
the Power which had gained so much should, in return, 
144 



LATER BALKAN DEVELOPMENTS 

and as a kind of make-weight, cede some of her own 
lands to the needy neighbour who had gained nothing. 
When Bulgaria refused to part with a square inch, 
Milan, in 1885, declared war. The campaign that 
followed was short ; a hastily assembled, ill-equipped 
Serbian army of 43,000 men, under the personal com- 
mand of Milan, crossed the frontier on November 16 
and advanced on Sofia. Two days later they were met 
at Slivnitsa by 80,000 Bulgarians under Prince Alexander 
of Battenberg, seriously defeated, and compelled to fall 
back within their territory and entrench their positions. 
The onset of winter prevented further operations, and 
meanwhile Austria intervened and brought about an 
armistice. 

The war came to an end in March 1886, when 
by the Treaty of Bucarest peace was assured on 
the basis of the status quo ante helium ; that is to 
say, Bulgaria kept what she had, and Serbia got 
nothing. 

The Treaty of Bucarest was shortly followed by an 
extraordinary occurrence. Prince Alexander, who had 
so recently led his army to victory, was kidnapped by a 
number of his officers. Some of these had expressed 
themselves as dissatisfied with the rewards they had 
received for services rendered during the Serbian war; 
but the feeling was not generally shared by their com- 
rades ; and the malcontents would, it was believed, 
hardly have ventured upon such an extreme course had 
they not been backed by personages much more exalted 
than themselves. It was widely surmised that these 
personages were agents of Russia, and that they were 
executing the will, if not indeed the definite instruc- 
tions, of the Czar, who, finding Prince Alexander no 
mere puppet to be worked by Russian strings, had 
decided that it would be best to remove him. Be that 
as it may, the unfortunate Prince was captured, and 
sent out of the country. The abduction took place in 
K 145 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

August. In September, however, Alexander returned, 
and received an enthusiastic welcome from his 
subjects ; but, rather than continue to rule under 
the constant displeasure of the Czar, he decided 
to abdicate — a resolution which he at once carried 
into effect. He was succeeded by Ferdinand of 
Saxe-Coburg. 

For some years Bulgaria now enjoyed peace and 
prosperity. Serbia was not so fortunate, for a 
series of deplorable quarrels in the royal family 
kept the country more or less in an uproar. In 
1889 King Milan abdicated in favor of his son 
Alexander, a boy of thirteen, who reigned till 1903, 
when he was murdered. Peter Karageorgevich then 
ascended the throne. 

After the Treaty of Berlin, Turkey, so far as progress 
is concerned, once more went fast asleep. The Sultan, 
Abdul Hamid, governed as an absolute monarch; the 
country's finances went from bad to worse ; and cruelty 
and injustice were common. Of all the Sultan's sub- 
jects the chief sufferers were the Christians of Armenia. 
These had petitioned the Congress of Berlin for a 
Christian governor, but had been put off with a pro- 
mise of reforms— which, however, were never carried 
out. In 1894 the savage Kurds, aided and abetted 
by Turkish troops, butchered thousands of the ill- 
fated Armenians, not only the men, but women and 
children too. The massacres were repeated in 1896, 
1897, 1900, 1901, and, in a peculiarly horrible manner, 
in 1915. 

In 1897 a war, originating in disputes between the 
Mohammedans and the Christians in the Turkish island 
of Crete, broke out between Turkey and Greece. As 
many of the inhabitants were Greeks, the Greeks on the 
mainland naturally came to the assistance of their 
brethren ; and, though they were heavily defeated, and 
obliged to pay a war indemnity of four million pounds, 
146 



LATER BALKAN DEVELOPMENTS 

Turkey eventually lost all real control of her former 
possession. 

Scarce had the war concerning Crete ended when 
troubles which had long been brewing came to a head 
in the Turkish province of Macedonia. Many of the 
inhabitants of this province were Greeks, Bulgars, 
Serbs, and Rumanians ; and the people of these parent 
States felt deeply the misgovernment and persecution 
to which the men of their race were subjected. But 
they did more than feel ; they acted ; they sent out 
emissaries to blow into a flame the spirit of disaffection 
among the oppressed Christians. Indeed, they would 
have been very glad to see a great rebellion break out 
forthwith ; for they held the opinion that Macedonia 
ought to be taken away from Turkey and parcelled 
out among them. Under circumstances such as 
these, with misgovernment and persecution on one 
side and sullen discontent and resentment on the 
other, it is little wonder that this Turkish province 
became a most uncomfortable place for Christians 
to live in. 

The Young Turks. — So bad did matters become that 
in 1903 the European Powers stepped in with a scheme 
of reform. This was accepted by the Sultan ; but before 
it could be got into working order the Ottoman Govern- 
ment was upset by a revolution in Constantinople. For 
some years past the party of Young Turks had been 
carrying on their own particular propaganda to improve 
the condition of the whole Empire ; and they had 
preached their doctrines not only to the civil popula- 
tion, but also in the army. They had gone about this 
very secretly, and in constant fear of their lives ; for it 
was dangerous work for any of his subjects to interfere 
with the Sultan's methods and intentions. But they 
had done their work well ; and, encouraged by the sup- 
port they had received, their leaders, in July 1908, 
proclaimed the Constitution of 1876, and threatened to 

147 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

march on Constantinople if this were not granted 
them. Taken by surprise, the Sultan gave way in 
a panic, and allowed a Parliament to meet in the 
autumn. 

The Annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. — The 
dissensions among the Turks gave Austria the oppor- 
tunity for which she had long been waiting; and 
accordingly she proceeded to annex the Slav States of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. These, it will be remem- 
bered, had been entrusted to her care in 1878, but to 
incorporate them entirely with herself was a direct 
violation of the Treaty of Berlin. Some of the Powers 
protested, but Austria refused to slacken her grip. As 
for the Serbs and Montenegrins, they were furious ; for 
they had hoped that some day Bosnia and Herze- 
govina might form part and parcel of the great Slav 
Empire of which they dreamed. In their consterna- 
tion and distress they appealed to Russia, but, 
weakened by the disastrous Japanese War, and torn by 
internal troubles, Russia was in no position to help 
them. The matter was finally clinched when the Ger- 
man Emperor gave out that, if need be, he would come 
to the aid of Austria, with mailed fist and in shining 
armor. Unwilling to risk a war with the two central 
military Empires, the European Powers gave way, and 
accepted the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as 
an accomplished fact. At the same time, the complete 
independence of Bulgaria was recognized. Both King 
Ferdinand, however, and the Austrian Government 
made the Turks a money payment by way of compensa- 
tion. 

Meanwhile the party of Young Turks found that the 
reforms they had preached were going to be difficult to 
put into practice. Some of the old-time Mohammedans 
feared that a liberal constitution would prove a bad 
thing for the Mohammedan religion, and so their sup- 
port became lukewarm, if not cold; while the Commit- 
148 



LATER BALKAN DEVELOPMENTS 

tee of Union and Progress, which had organized the 
revolution and now controlled the government from 
Saloniki, offended the Macedonian races by keeping 
a great deal of the power in its own hands, and 
allowing little scope for anything like local self- 
government. 

Taking advantage of disagreements in the ranks of 
the reformers, the Sultan, in 1909, encouraged a 
counter-revolution in Constantinople, when the Young 
Turks fled ; but they soon returned, deposed Abdul 
Hamid, and placed his brother, Mohammed V, on the 
throne. Subsequently, however, they greatly disap- 
pointed the hopes of those who believed that they 
would inaugurate a good time coming, a time of social 
progress and constitutional reform. For, though they 
certainly ruled in a somewhat more enlightened 
manner, instead of directing their chief attention 
to reform, and trying to secure the co-operation of 
the different races and creeds, they mainly con- 
centrated their efforts on the task of building up, 
under German tutelage, a highly-centralized military 
State. 

In 1912 Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece 
formed themselves into a union known as the Balkan 
League, and suddenly declared war against Turkey. 
The Turks were beaten, and the Powers stepped in with 
the advice that a peace should be concluded. But to 
arrange satisfactory terms of peace, and to divide the 
Turkish spoils in such a manner as to please all the 
ravenous claimants, proved difficult, nay impossible ; 
and, to complicate matters, Rumania now demanded 
a portion of Bulgarian territory. 

No sooner, therefore, was the Turkish war well over 
than the victors began to quarrel among themselves ; 
and the series of disputes culminated in Bulgaria's 
attacking Serbia and Greece, who later were joined by 
Rumania. Bulgaria was defeated, and Balkan affairs 

149 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

were, for the time being, settled in August 1913 by 
the Treaty of Bucarest. By the provisions of this 
treaty Serbia obtained Central Macedonia ; to Bulgaria 
was allotted part of Western Thrace ; Montenegro 
acquired an extension of territory ; Greece gained 
Epirus, Southern Macedonia, Saloniki, and some sea- 
board in Western Thrace ; Albania received the Adriatic 
coast from Scutari to Chimara ; and Rumania took 
from Bulgaria a strip of land between the Danube and 
the Black Sea. 

In 1913 the German Chancellor made use, in a public 
speech, of the following suggestive expressions : " The 
main point," he said, " is that into the place of European 
Turkey, whose State life has become passive, there 
have entered States which exhibit a quite extraordinary 
activity. . . . One thing remains beyond doubt — if it 
should ever come to a European conflagration, which 
sets Slav against German, it is thus for us a disadvan- 
tage that the position in the balance of forces which 
was occupied hitherto by European Turkey is now 
filled in part by Slav States." In other words, this 
meant that German interests in the Balkan Peninsula 
demanded a predominance of Turkish power rather 
than a number of strong and independent Christian 
States. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Give the story of Alexander of Battenberg, elected 
King of Bulgaria in 1879. 

2. When, and why, was Eastern Rumelia united to 
Bulgaria? 

3. State the cause, and give the result, of the war between 
Serbia and Bulgaria in 1835. 

4. The Balkan Peninsula is inhabited by a strange jumble 
of races. Give details in support of this statement. 

150 



LATER BALKAN DEVELOPMENTS 

5. Who were the Young Turks ? What was their pro- 
gram, and how did they carry it out ? 

6. Say what you know about the annexation of the pro- 
vinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria. 

7. What was the Balkan League? 



251 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE 

FOR many years after the conclusion of the 
Treaty of Berlin, the great European Powers 
entered upon no serious struggle for the enlarge- 
ment of their own homelands. Though some 
of them wished to expand, and in fact did so, this 
expansion took place, not in Europe, but in other parts 
of the world. Of these matters we shall treat in future 
chapters ; here we will deal with the manner in which 
the Powers sought to protect themselves and what they 
already possessed. 

You must think of Europe now as being at peace ; 
but it was an armed peace, one in which the nations 
competed as to which should have the most efficient 
offensive and defensive forces. Indeed, so heavily did 
the cost of armies and navies press upon the unfortu- 
nate taxpayers, and so quickly did the burdens grow, 
that in 1899 the Czar of Russia called together the dele- 
gates from the different Powers — the Hague Conference 
— to see if some means could not be found for putting 
a limit to this vast expenditure. Germany, however, 
refused even to consider such a suggestion, and so the 
matter dropped. 

Now not only did the nations vie with each other in the 
matter of armaments, but they also endeavored to 
strengthen their positions by the formation of alliances ; 
for just as armed men consider themselves safer when 
they go about in bands, and under the protection of 
152 



THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE 

numbers, so armed nations long believed they were 
more secure when they formed one of a group of allies. 
To understand the nature and extent of these alliances 
we must refer back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. 
This had left bitter memories in the minds of the French 
people ; and Germany, rightly or wrongly, believed that 
France would sooner or later endeavor to seize a 
favorable opportunity for paying off old scores. As 
the former naturally desired to keep such an oppor- 
tunity out of France's reach, and as she was not able 
to interfere with the rapid way in which the French were 
increasing both army and navy, she tried to keep the 
past enemy and probable future foe in a position of 
isolation. " We want France," said Bismarck, in a 
letter to the German Ambassador at Paris, " to leave 
us in peace, and we have to prevent France from find- 
ing an ally if she does not keep the peace. As long 
as France has no allies, she is not dangerous to 
Germany." 

The isolation of France proved quite easy ; for, as 
that nation was a republic, and was regarded as the 
hot-bed of revolutionary ideas, it was likely to be 
viewed with unfriendly eyes by the great European 
monarchies. Accordingly, in 1872, as we have seen, 
the Czar and the Austrian and German Emperors 
entered into an agreement— though no formal treaty 
was signed — whereby they bound themselves to com- 
bine (1) for the maintenance of present boundaries, 
(2) for the settlement of problems arising out of the 
Eastern Question, and (3) for the suppression of revolu- 
tion in Europe. 

Had this League of the Three Emperors been of a 
strong and enduring character, such a powerful com- 
bination of arbitrary rulers might well have endangered 
the liberties of the European peoples. Happily, how- 
ever, for the cause of freedom, it proved neither firm nor 
lasting ; for not only did the Czar suspect Germany and 

153 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Austria of an intention to undermine Russian influence 
in the Balkans, but he also believed that Germany was 
contemplating another attack on France. This latter 
project he expressed his intention of preventing; and 
his plain and open statement was the beginning of a 
better understanding with France, who, knowing well 
that " a friend in need is a friend indeed," felt her 
heart warm when she thought of how the Czar had stood 
between her and those who sought to crush her. More- 
over, the League of the Three Emperors received 
another blow at the Berlin Congress, where the Russians 
accused Germany of favoring Austrian interests at the 
expense of those of Russia. 

Seeing that Russia was thus, as it were, drifting 
away, the two Central Powers now determined to draw 
more closely together ; and this understanding was 
greatly facilitated by the fact that Bismarck's refusal 
to press home the Prussian advantage after the war of 
1866 had earned some measure of Austrian gratitude. 
" Do a kind turn when you can " is no bad motto to 
act upon, even from a selfish point of view ; and, though 
the great Prussian minister probably had not acted in 
this matter out of pure kindness of heart, he now 
reaped the reward of his forbearance — let his motives 
have been what they may; that is to say, he found 
Austria quite willing to meet Germany half way. 

And if these two military Empires joined forces, the 
coalition would be formidable indeed. " When Ger- 
many and Austria," said Bismarck, " are united, with 
our two million soldiers back to back, the Russians will 
doubtless think twice before disturbing the peace." 
The understanding between the two Central Powers 
took place in 1879, but it was not till 1888 that the 
treaty was publicly acknowledged, and its terms pub- 
lished. The agreement was to the effect that, should 
Russia make war either upon Germany or upon 
Austria, the threatened Power would be assisted by its 
154 



THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE 

ally; but should either of them be attacked by another 
Power — in this case obviously France — then the other 
might remain neutral, unless and until Russia joined 
in the fray. Such were the conditions of what was 
known as the Dual Alliance. 

We now come to the course of events that led Italy 
to throw in her lot with the Central Powers. Why 
should she, of all people, have taken such a step ? In 
the past Austria had been her bitter enemy ; it was 
not so very long since the Austrians had been expelled 
from Lombardy and Venice ; and, even now, they held, 
in the Trentino, Istria, and Dalmatia, territory which 
the Italians regarded as rightly theirs ; whereas France 
had been generally friendly, and had undoubtedly 
rendered valuable service in the Italian war of libera- 
tion. Why, then, should Italy ally herself with an 
old enemy, and leave an old friend, as it were, in 
the lurch ? 

Several causes contributed to bring about this change 
of front, but the chief of these was the French occupa- 
tion of Tunis in 1881. Italy had ambitions in the direc- 
tion of colonial expansion, and for some time her eye 
had been fixed upon Tunis as a suitable sphere for 
Italian enterprise. But now she had been forestalled, 
and she accordingly resented what she regarded as an 
act of poaching on preserves to which, geographically 
speaking, she had a better right than France. It is no 
great exaggeration of language to say that, in relation 
to Sicily, Tunis stood just across the street ; whereas the 
place was a long, long way from France. Why then 
should the French, unscrupulous Ahabs with extensive 
colonial fields of their own, seek to seize the Naboth's 
vineyard of Italy ? This was the latter's view of the 
matter, and her resentment at what she considered 
such unwarrantable conduct precipitated her into the 
arms of the Central Powers. In 1882 she signed a 
treaty of alliance with them for five years, and thus 

155 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the Dual developed into the Triple Alliance. The 
agreement, with some alteration of terms, was renewed 
from time to time. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. With what object was the Hague Conference called 
together in 1899 ? 

2. Why did Bismarck desire to isolate France? 

3. Say what you know about the League of the Three 
Emperors. 

4. What was the Dual Alliance ? 

5. State the chief circumstances which induced Italy to 
join Germany and Austria in the Triple Alliance. 



156 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE TRIPLE ENTENTE 

THE formation of such a formidable coalition 
as the Triple Alliance naturally aroused much 
uneasiness, and even downright alarm, among 
the rest of the European Powers ; for, with 
Germany, Austria, and Italy thus banded together, 
what chance could any single nation have of resisting 
their united will ? France and Russia in particular 
regarded the Triple Alliance as a menace to their 
interests, a threat against the national well-being. But 
what could they do ? What steps could they take to 
protect themselves ? Obviously, the best course to 
pursue — if that had been at all feasible — was to join 
hands, to combine forces, according to the example 
that had just been set them. Unfortunately, however, 
such a friendly agreement seemed, at the time, quite out 
of the question ; for France was republican and revolu- 
tionary ; while Russia was a stereotyped monarchy, and 
the autocratic Czar could not be expected to sympathize 
with the French system of government and the French 
progressive ideas. Indeed, the two nations might well 
be compared to oil and water ; they would not mix. 
But the parallel may be carried a little farther. Given 
the right methods, the two liquids may be made to 
mix ; and even so it proved with the two nations ; an 
alliance turned out to be not only possible, it became 
an accomplished fact. 

William II. — The urgent incentive to such an alliance 

157 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

came when, in 1888, William II ascended the German 
throne. Immediately on his accession he issued to his 
army a proclamation in which occurred the following 
words : "I swear to remember that the eyes of my 
ancestors look down upon me from the other world, and 
that I shall one day have to render account to them of 
the glory and honor of the army." On the same day 
he addressed the navy ; but not until three days later 
did he give out his Imperial message to the people. 
From a sovereign who thus made his armed forces his 
first consideration, and who, moreover, addressed them 
in such terms, the surrounding nations judged they 
might have much to fear. The alarm was especially felt 
in Russia and France, and accordingly they began to 
hedge themselves in with measures of precaution. In 
the first place, the great Paris banking houses lent the 
Russian Government large sums of money, with the 
understanding that this was to be used for the building 
of strategic railways, the improvement of the navy, 
and the arming of the troops with new and improved 
weapons. 

A further step toward union was taken when, in July 
1891, the French Channel Fleet visited Cronstadt and 
was warmly welcomed both by Czar and people ; while 
in 1893 a Russian squadron entered the harbor of 
Toulon, on which occasion the Czar, in a telegram to 
the French President, referred to " the bonds which 
unite the two countries." As yet, however, these 
bonds were not drawn very tight ; and it was not until 
1895 that what had probably been merely a vague, 
though friendly, exchange of good wishes ripened into 
the formal Franco-Russian Entente. The terms of the 
treaty which now cemented the two nations were not 
officially published ; but it was generally understood 
that the main provision ran as follows : if either France 
or Russia were attacked by a hostile Power, the two 
allies were bound to unite the whole of their naval 
158 



THE TRIPLE ENTENTE 

and military forces for the purpose of repelling the 
aggressor. 

Meanwhile, how did Britain stand ? She was a mem- 
ber of neither of the two great combinations of Powers ; 
she held aloof from the Triple Alliance of Germany, 
Austria, and Italy ; and she took no steps to join the 
Franco-Russian Entente. Was this attitude of ' splen- 
did isolation ' altogether wise and prudent ? For a 
long time the statesmen who guided the policy of the 
Island Power evidently thought that it was; they pre- 
ferred not to be mixed up any more than was absolutely 
necessary with Continental politics ; and they believed 
that, should they ever have the bad luck to stumble 
into an international tangle, they were quite able to 
break out of the meshes without any outside help. In- 
deed, had they at this time desired to take sides, they 
would probably have joined the Triple Alliance ; for 
relations with Germany and Italy were then regarded as 
friendly, and with Austria it did not seem likely that 
any great points of difference could arise ; whereas 
Russia, by her Asiatic conquests, was thought by many 
people to be a menace to India ; and French and British 
interests appeared to be clashing continually. 

The End of British Isolation. — Presently, however, 
there came a change in the European situation, and a 
fresh grouping of forces. Of these developments there 
were three well-marked stages, viz., (1) the reconcilia- 
tion of Italy with France, (2) the reconciliation of 
France with Britain, and (3) the reconciliation of 
Britain with Russia. We will take them in the order 
in which they stand. 

First, then, as to the reconciliation of France with 
Italy. We have seen how the latter resented the 
French occupation of Tunis ; and we may add here that 
the cause of offence led to many popular outbreaks of 
Italian ill-feeling toward the offenders. But time is a 
wonderful healer of sores ; so by and by, when the angry 

159 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

passions of the moment had subsided, the old friendly 
feeling- — which had been wounded but not killed — 
between the two nations gradually revived ; and in 1896 
Italy formally recognized the French position in Tunis ; 
while in 1901 France promised she would not oppose 
Italian claims in Tripoli, and Italy agreed to give 
France a free hand in Morocco. 

These evidences of the return of the mutual good- 
will of the past were followed in 1903 by an official visit 
of the King of Italy to Paris; while President Loubet 
returned the courtesy in 1904. Thus Italy, though she 
still remained a member of the coalition which France 
regarded as a menace to her interests, if not indeed to 
her very existence as a first-class Power, was now 
making it quite plain that in any enterprise directed 
against an old friend, once lost, but since happily 
regained, Italian support must not be counted upon by 
the Triple Alliance. 

Second, as to the reconciliation of France with 
Britain. The German attitude toward the latter during 
the Boer War had been offensive ; and there were not 
wanting other indications to show that Teutonic friend- 
ship, though it might promise much, was not to be 
relied upon. Under these circumstances, it was decided 
that France should be approached ; and in 1903 King 
Edward VII, who was a sincere admirer of the Repub- 
lic, paid his first official visit to Paris. In the same 
year President Loubet came to London, where he was 
royally entertained. Thus the way was paved toward a 
better understanding between the two countries. 

But before a better understanding could be satisfac- 
torily reached there remained to be settled various 
matters of dispute, the chief of which was undoubtedly 
the British occupation of Egypt— of which more will 
be said in Chapter XXVI. The British occupation of 
Egypt had been a very sore point with France ; and the 
French withdrawal from Fashoda, with the consequent 
160 



THE TRIPLE ENTENTE 

abandonment of all claim to the Nile Valley, had been 
bitterly resented. Now, however, France agreed to 
surrender all claims in Egypt, and not to press for a 
British withdrawal, on condition that Britain did not 
interfere with France in the latter's schemes for extend- 
ing her sphere of influence in Morocco. A treaty 
between the two countries was signed in 1904, and was 
warmly welcomed on both sides of the Channel. 

France had thus gained a new ally — of whose good 
offices she was shortly to stand in need. In March 
1905 the German Emperor landed from his yacht at 
Tangier, and there made a speech to the effect that he, 
if need were, intended to interfere with French designs 
in Morocco. He then suggested that the Powers should 
consider the Moroccan question at a conference, and 
France, rather than run the risk of a war, consented. 
So far the result had been a triumph for Germany. 
The conference duly met at Algeciras in 1906, and sat 
for ten weeks. But the outcome was destined to be a 
blow to German hopes ; for France, backed by Britain and 
Russia, carried the day, and the German aim of finding 
a footing in Northern Africa was frustrated. The right 
of France and Spain to police Morocco was recognized. 

Third, as to the reconciliation of Britain with Russia. 
To work together for a common cause is a capital way 
to become good comrades ; the common support that 
Britain and Russia had given to France at Algeciras 
drew these two nations more closely together ; each 
began to recognize the good qualities of the other ; and 
each came to see that, though there were points of dis- 
agreement between them, there were points of agree- 
ment also. It was the dwelling too much upon the 
former, and too little upon the latter, that had hitherto 
kept Britain and Russia at arm's length. Now, how- 
ever, they resolved to revise the whole situation, and, 
standing as it were on the solid ground of a mutual 
good-fellowship, see if they could not smooth away 
L 161 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the obstacles over which their relationships had so long 
stumbled. After a series of preliminary discussions and 
negotiations, they signed a treaty limiting their respec- 
tive spheres of influence in Persia, acknowledging the 
right of Britain to control the foreign policy of Afghani- 
stan, and denying to either country the right to inter- 
fere with the affairs of Tibet. In this manner the Dual 
Entente between France and Russia had expanded into 
the Triple Entente between France, Russia, and Britain. 
We now see how it came about that the great Euro- 
pean Powers ranged themselves in two mighty coalitions 
— on the one side the Triple Alliance of Germany, 
Austria, and Italy, on the other the Triple Entente of 
France, Russia, and Britain — each bent on safeguarding 
the party to which it belonged. But what if there came 
a clash of interests between a Power, or Powers, of the 
Alliance and a Power, or Powers, of the Entente ? Such 
a clash nearly came in 1908, when Austria annexed 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the German Emperor 
stepped, as it were, on the stage, with his theatrical 
pronouncement about " shining armor." Happily 
an actual collision had been averted. But would a 
second occasion arise, an occasion when neither side 
would give way ? In that case there was likely to be 
a war of Titans ; a war, moreover, in which the inven- 
tions of science and the resources of civilization would 
be wrested from their proper functions of bringing peace 
and prosperity, and misused to submerge a Continent 
beneath a sea of blood. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What was the urgent incentive that caused France and 
Russia to draw together ? 

2. Trace the steps by which the understanding between 
them was finally cemented. 

162 



THE TRIPLE ENTENTE 

3. State the arguments for and against Britain's 
' splendid isolation.' 

4. By what means was the reconciliation of Italy with 
France effected ? 

5. How did Britain come to join the alliance between 
France and Russia, and thus complete the Triple Entente ? 

6. What are the dangers of the doctrine of the Balance of 
Power ? 



163 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE FAR EAST 

FOR the present we will turn our attention away 
from the internal affairs of the European States. 
Their boundaries had been more or less well 
defined, and the presence of two such imposing 
groups of Powers as we have spoken of in the two pre- 
vious chapters seemed to offer some guarantee that the 
position of these boundaries would not be meddled with 
lightly. Toy-terriers will snarl over tiny bones, with 
no great damage to the living-room rug; but 
surely it must be a big bone of contention indeed that 
would induce the three great hounds of the Alliance 
to lock in a death-grapple with the three of the 
Entente. 

Thus the closing years of the nineteenth and the 
beginning of the twentieth century were witness to no 
noteworthy changes in the home territories of the Euro- 
pean States. On the contrary, those States that wished 
to expand, rinding their way blocked on the Continent, 
turned their attention to far-away fields of enterprise, 
and sought to increase their foreign possessions. For 
this reason the centres of interest for the European 
Powers now lay in other quarters of the globe. 

The Rise of Japan. — Turning first to Asia, we may 
begin by remarking that one of the most striking 
features in Asiatic development has been the wonderful 
rise of Japan, which, from being an isolated and semi- 
barbarous country, has not only taken its place among 
164 



SIBERIA 




The Far East 



165 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the nations to be reckoned with, but has also, by its 
numerous improvements in education, justice, and 
army-and-navy organization, deserved to rank as a 
civilized State. As such it was formally recognized by 
Britain in 1894, and the other European Powers were 
not slow to follow Britain's lead. 

Now close to Japan lies the peninsula of Korea, which 
was governed both weakly and badly ; so weakly indeed, 
and so badly, that Japan invited the co-operation of 
China in carrying out a program of reforms ; and, 
when China refused, Japan undertook the task herself. 
But the Koreans did not want to be reformed ; they 
were unwilling to change their ways in the manner 
suggested by their peremptory neighbor ; and they said 
to that neighbor, though not in these exact words : 
" Our affairs are no concern of yours. We are under 
no obligations to please you. So leave us alone, and 
kindly mind your own business." But, not to be 
denied, Japan sent out troops to enforce her demands. 
China now intervened, though not on the side of the 
Japanese, but on that of the Koreans. Chinese and 
Koreans, however, together proved no match for the 
Japanese, and, in 1895, were compelled to sign the 
Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which they agreed to cede 
certain Chinese territory, viz., the Liao-Tung peninsula 
and the island of Formosa. 

But what concern, you will perhaps say, had the 
European Powers with these happenings in the Far 
East? Well, they speedily showed that they had, or 
thought they ought to have, some concern in the 
matter; and, posing as the protectors of big, helpless 
China, three of them, viz., Russia, France, and Ger- 
many, now demanded that Japan should give up the 
newly-acquired peninsula of Liao-Tung. As Japan 
could not hope to succeed in a war with three of the 
great European Powers, she had to submit. But, 
though deeply chagrined, she was far from being down- 
166 



THE FAR EAST 

cast, and seeing further trouble ahead, set to work to 
strengthen her army and navy in a very thorough 
manner. Organization, drill, weapons, and marksman- 
ship were greatly improved ; and powerful battleships 
were ordered, and, when delivered, handled with effi- 
ciency. Thus, when the time came to strike — if it ever 
should come — Japan trusted she would be ready. 

The Scramble for the Pacific Trade. — Do you suppose 
that this intervention of the Western Powers was quite 
disinterested ? Do you think that, in doing what they 
had done, they had wished to gain no advantage what- 
ever for themselves ? Well, note the events that fol- 
lowed. Take first the case of Russia. In 1891 she had 
begun the great Trans-Siberian Railway, by which she 
proposed to link up Russia-in-Europe with an ice-free 
port on the Pacific Ocean. The completion of this 
railway — certainly one of the biggest engineering feats 
ever attempted by man — is an enterprise of which 
Russia may well be proud. True, the track passes 
through large districts where the country is flat and 
the work of construction easy; but there are others 
where the line winds its way up to a mountain plateau, 
descends into treacherous marshes, or has to be pro- 
tected from floods that turn whole valleys into torrents 
of swirling waters. In one especially difficult moun- 
tain section of fifty-six miles there are no less than 
thirty-nine tunnels, and thirteen galleries for protection 
against rock-slides. 

Now the direct route to the Pacific lies through Man- 
churia, a province of Northern China ; and of course 
Russia had no right to trespass on Chinese soil. Per- 
haps it was gratitude for what Russia had done- for her 
in the matter of the Treaty of Shimonoseki ; perhaps 
it was pressure put upon the Chinese Government ; what- 
ever the explanation may have been, the fact remains 
that China now gave Russia permission to carry the 
Trans-Siberian Railway through Manchuria. 

167 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

A few years later — in 1897 — as the outcome of dis- 
turbances in China which resulted in the murder of two 
German missionaries, the Chinese were compelled by 
Germany to lease to her for a term of ninety-nine years 
the port and district of Kiao-chow. Not to be outdone, 
Russia demanded Port Arthur ; Britain secured Wei- 
hai-Wei and some land near Hong Kong ; while France 
extended her sphere of influence near Tonkin. So you 
see that though the Western Powers were quite willing 
to protect China from encroachments on the part of 
Japan, they were more than quite willing to take some 
of her territory themselves ; and now Germany, Russia, 
and Britain each had a port on the shores of the Yellow 
Sea — where Japan had been prevented from obtaining 
a footing. 

Why, do you suppose, were the European nations so 
eager to obtain these ports ? Well, they had three 
chief reasons : 

(1) Each wanted a naval base on the spot, where 
she could lay up stores of coal, construct docks and 
fortifications, and erect machinery for the repair of the 
ships of war that patrolled Pacific waters. 

(2) Each wanted a commercial centre from which 
her merchants might develop the fast-growing Pacific 
trade. 

(3) Each considered that the shores of the Yellow 
Sea furnished one of the best possible situations both 
for a naval base and a commercial port. 

Naturally the annexations made by the Western 
Powers were not popular in China ; and, partly from 
this cause, partly owing to domestic broils, a society 
called the Boxers endeavored to drive all foreigners — 
' foreign devils ' was the name the Boxers gave them — 
out of the land. To put down the Boxer rising, a force 
of 20,000, consisting of Japanese and European troops 
under German leadership, started from Pekin, and very 
soon succeeded in the object it had undertaken. Peace 
168 



THE FAR EAST 

was made in 1901. In 1902 Japan signed a treaty of 
alliance with Britain. 

The Russo-Japanese War. — Now Russia, as we have 
just seen, had secured from China railway concessions 
in the province of Manchuria ; but, not content with 
purely trading privileges, she now sought to strengthen 
her influence by acquiring a measure of governmental 
control there. At the same time she began to show 
great activity in Korea, and to refuse to acknowledge 
that Japan had any right to interfere in Korean affairs. 
Japan protested ; Russia refused to listen ; and so in 
1904 there broke out the Russo-Japanese War. To 
the amazement of the whole world the Japanese proved 
victorious ; the Russian army retreated, and the 
Russian fleet was annihilated. At the conclusion of 
peace by the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan's claims in 
Korea were conceded, and she gained the Liao-Tung 
peninsula and the southern half of the island of 
Sakhalin ; while Russia agreed to evacuate Manchuria. 

The Japanese success had a great influence in China. 
A Power that could do such great deeds against so 
formidable a foe was surely worthy of imitation ; and so 
the Chinese proceeded to imitate Japan in the matter 
of making extensive reforms. They issued decrees 
against foot-binding, did away with the system of 
appointing government officials solely on the score of 
having passed a literary examination, opened schools 
under Japanese instructors, and sent large numbers of 
young men to study abroad. More than this, they 
dispatched a deputation to Europe in order to examine 
the different systems of government ; and, on its return, 
set about introducing a number of European methods 
into China. Lastly, they started a crusade against 
opium, and came to an agreement with the Indian 
authorities by which the latter pledged themselves, 
under certain conditions, to put a gradual end to the 
export of that noxious drug to China. 

169 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Give some account of the rapid rise of modern Japan. 

2. What gave rise to the war between China and Japan 
in 1895 ? What were the immediate results of this war ? 

3. Why did Russia lay down the Trans-Siberian Rail- 
way? Enumerate some details of its construction. 

4. What territory did Britain, France, and Russia receive 
from China in 1897 ? 

5. For what three purposes did these European Powers 
desire ports in Eastern Asia ? 

6. What was the Boxer Rising ? 

7. Write a short account of the Russo-Japanese War of 
1904. 



170 



CHAPTER XXVI 
BRITAIN IN EGYPT 

IN this and the succeeding chapter we shall treat 
of the manner in which the European Powers 
sought to carve out great chunks of territory from 
the huge bulk of the African Continent; and per- 
haps we cannot do better than begin with the story of 
the British occupation of Egypt. 

The first important event to bring the land of the 
Pharaohs into the sphere of European politics was its 
invasion in 1798 by Napoleon I, who meant to make it 
a French possession, and a base from which he might 
set out on his gigantic project of Eastern conquest. 
But the British fleet cut his line of communication with 
his source of supplies from headquarters, and so he 
failed in his design. 

The Suez Canal. — In 1856, however, Egypt came once 
more to the front ; for at that date Ferdinand de Lesseps 
gained the consent of the Khedive, who ruled under the 
suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey, to construct the 
Suez Canal. The undertaking was duly completed in 
1869 ; but, as the concession had been granted for only 
ninety-nine years, the Canal was to become the property 
of the Egyptian Government at the expiration of that 
period. 

It had been expected that the Suez Canal would bring 
much wealth into the country. These hopes, however, 
were disappointed ; for it was found that most of the 
wealth went into the pockets of the shareholders. But 

171 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Egypt now found another source of prosperity. The 
outbreak of the American Civil War led to a blockade 
of the cotton-producing States ; so cotton became 
scarce, and accordingly the price rose. Seeing this, the 
Egyptian farmers began to cultivate extensively what 
was to many of them a strange new shrub ; and they 
made immense profits from the sale of their fluffy white 
produce. Unfortunately, neither they nor their 
government took care of the money they had gained, 
but, on the contrary, spent it in a very lavish manner. 
Perhaps the most imprudent and extravagant spend- 
thrift of all was the Khedive ; for, counting on the con- 
tinuance of that wonderful prosperity, not only did he 
spend every penny of his large income, but, worse still, 
he got deeply into debt. But that wonderful prosperity 
did not continue. At the close of the war, great 
stocks of cotton were sent over to Europe from 
the Southern States ; so that there was plenty for 
everybody, indeed more than the manufacturers 
required. Consequently the price fell ; and the 
profits of the Egyptian cotton-growers — compared 
with those they had been previously making — were 
now quite small. 

Egyptian Finance. — Thus a very difficult problem 
faced the Khedive. Seeing that his income had gone 
down with such a slump, how was he going to get 
money to pay his creditors ? Well, first of all he taxed 
his people very heavily ; and then, in 1876, he sold his 
shares in the Suez Canal to the British Government for 
£4,000,000. But these steps did not suffice to free him 
from his burden. 

Now the people who had lent him the money were 
chiefly Frenchmen and Englishmen ; and, alarmed at 
the prospect of losing their loans, they induced the 
Khedive to give them large powers of control over 
Egyptian revenue and expenditure. Their idea was 
that they should collect the taxes, out of which they 
172 




Fashodr 



Egypt 



173 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

would pay all necessary expenses of government; from 
what was left over they would recoup themselves for 
the cash they had advanced. But would anything be 
left over ? On that point they felt no doubt ; for they 
believed that, properly managed, Egyptian finance 
might be made a going concern. It was in this 
manner that the dual control of France and 
Britain began. In 1879 the Khedive, who had 
failed miserably, abdicated. He was succeeded by 
his son Tewfik. 

But Tewfik soon found that he had inherited what 
was likely to prove a crown of thorns ; for troubles 
began to press in upon him from every side. Most 
unhappily, his father had left him in the hands of 
money-lenders, and these 'largely controlled the 
Egyptian finances. Now money-lenders are not always 
the most popular of people — especially when it comes to 
the question of 'paying up.' Those particular ones 
with whom Tewfik had to deal were not popular with 
him, and they were not popular with his subjects. In- 
deed, the latter were not long in beginning to clamor 
that not only foreign money-lenders but foreign mer- 
chants, and in fact foreigners of every description, 
ought to be expelled from the country. 

Possibly this cry of " Egypt for the Egyptians " 
would never have gone much farther than mere words, 
had it not been for dissensions in the Egyptian army, 
where there were two parties, one claiming that pro- 
motion, even to the highest rank, should be open to men 
of humble native birth, while the other would reserve 
the plums of the military profession to the lordly Turk 
and the proud Circassian. The head of the native 
party was Arabi Pasha ; and to him all those people, 
both military men and civilians, who hated foreigners 
and despised the Christian religion looked as their 
leader. Disturbances broke out at Alexandria, where 
the ' true believers ' attacked the houses of Europeans 
174 



BRITAIN IN EGYPT 

and murdered the inhabitants, and where-Arabi and his 
followers proceeded to arm the populace and to 
strengthen the forts. 

At that time, lying off Alexandria, was a British 
squadron ; and Arabi was induced to promise to discon- 
tinue the strengthening of the defences. Nevertheless 
he continued the work under cover of night, so the 
Admiral proceeded to bombard the forts. Arabi and 
his troops then left the city, where a furious outbreak 
of the mob resulted in the loss of hundreds of European 
lives and the destruction of millions of pounds' worth 
of property. 

The Withdrawal of France. — What was to be the next 
step ? As France refused to join in the task of repress- 
ing Arabi — a rebel against the authority of the Khedive 
— and of restoring order and seeking redress and com- 
pensation — thus virtually resigning her share in the 
Dual Control — Britain took up the work alone. A force 
of 10,000 men under Sir Garnet Wolseley was 
despatched to Egypt ; and this, strengthened by a con- 
tingent from India, after a series of preliminary suc- 
cesses scattered Arabi's army at the battle of Tel-el- 
Kebir. Shortly afterward Arabi was taken prisoner; 
the Sultan officially disavowed him ; and in 1883 he was 
exiled to Ceylon. 

Now there were many people who thought that, 
having vindicated the authority of the Khedive, Britain 
ought to withdraw from participation in Egyptian 
affairs. But the British Government decided otherwise ; 
for they argued that, having been drawn into the 
country by force of circumstances, it would not be fair 
to leave it to the anarchy which would be sure to follow 
an immediate abandonment. They declared, how- 
ever, that the occupation was but temporary, 
and would only last until order and prosperity 
had been restored, and new and better institutions 
established. 

175 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Trouble in the Sudan. — But a war-cloud was gather- 
ing in the Sudan ; and that must be dispersed before 
any serious attempt at reform was possible. Indeed it 
seemed probable that the Nile basin would soon be 
overrun by the savage fanatics of the back country. 
In that district there had appeared a man who claimed 
to be the Messiah or Prophet foretold by the founder of 
Mohammedanism ; this personage was called by his 
followers El Mahdi (' The Leader '). While the British 
were engaged in putting down the rebellion of Arabi, 
the Mahdi had been busy in stirring the Sudan 
to revolt ; and in 1883 the insurgents exterminated 
near El Obeid a force of Egyptian soldiers under 
Hicks Pasha. 

His British advisers now urged the Khedive to 
evacuate the Sudan, and to this course he agreed. But, 
scattered here and there in the disturbed district there 
were various Egyptian garrisons and residents ; and, 
as it would not have been honorable to leave them to 
be slaughtered, it was decided that an attempt should 
be made to get them safely away. For such a difficult 
and dangerous task a capable and heroic director was 
needed ; and it seemed as though the very man for the 
purpose was at hand in the person of Charles George 
Gordon. 

Unfortunately there seems to have been a misunder- 
standing as to what Gordon was really to do. Had he 
confined his attention to withdrawing the garrisons and 
residents, he might well have carried out his task suc- 
cessfully. Instead of that, however, he appears to have 
combined the project of evacuation with the much more 
ambitious one of forming in the Sudan a government 
which would not prove hostile to Egyptian interests. 
The blame for these divided counsels it would perhaps 
be unwise to apportion. But they led to a disastrous 
result. The Mahdists surrounded Khartum, where 
Gordon was making a last stand, and captured it two 
176 



BRITAIN IN EGYPT 

days before the vanguard of the relieving force put in 
an appearance. Here Gordon fell. 

The possession of the arsenal at Khartum was of 
immense importance to the half-armed hordes of the 
Mahdi, and the fall of the city brought many adherents 
to his standard. It was only the presence of British 
troops at Wady Haifa that prevented the valley of the 
Lower Nile from becoming the prey of the savage and 
fanatical tribesmen. 

But in 1885 the Mahdi received his quietus ; he was 
poisoned by a woman whom he had ill-treated. This, 
however, did not put an end to Mahdism ; for the fallen 
leader had an able successor in a former servant, 
Abdullah Taashi, who now took the place of his late 
master and assumed the title of Khalifa. Under the 
rule of the Khalifa the Sudan was given up to tyranny 
and oppression ; but, more than that, it was by no 
means unlikely that the insurgents, sooner or later, 
would be able to sweep away opposition and penetrate 
northward — perhaps to the Mediterranean. 

To put an end to this constant menace, it was deter- 
mined in 1896 to reconquer the Sudan ; and the work 
was entrusted to Sir Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar of the 
Egyptian army. First Kitchener subdued Dongola 
and the Khalifa's northern provinces. Then, in 1898, 
with a native army stiffened by British troops, 
he routed the Khalifa's forces outside the rebel 
capital, Omdurman. The Khalifa himself fled into 
the desert, where, a year later, he perished in a 
skirmish. 

In this manner the Khedive regained his southern 
territory. But when Kitchener proceeded to adminis- 
ter it as the Khedive's representative, he discovered 
at Fashoda, on the White Nile, a small French expedi- 
tion under Major Marchand. Marchand had come 
across country from French Congo, with the intention 
of establishing a colony on the upper reaches of the Nile. 
m 177 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

To this proceeding, however, Kitchener objected, and 
the matter was referred to the home governments. 
Eventually, after much correspondence and consider- 
able friction, the French withdrew their claim, and the 
Nile Valley was given up to Egypt — where British 
influence was now predominant. 

British Organization in Egypt. — Now it would be idle 
to deny that Britain's intervention in Egyptian affairs 
brought upon her much jealousy and ill-will from the 
European Powers ; and yet, once having intervened, it 
is difficult to see how she could well have withdrawn 
until her task of restoring order had been accomplished. 
Moreover, however sharply her presence in Egypt may 
be criticized, a candid mind is bound to acknowledge 
that during the term of British occupation her influence 
vastly bettered the condition of the country. Irriga- 
tion was improved ; railways, canals, and public works 
were laid down ; the economic position of the small 
landholders was rendered more secure by the establish- 
ment of agricultural banks ; forced labor on govern- 
ment enterprises was abolished ; the administration of 
justice was made much more satisfactory ; the death- 
rate was lowered, and travelling eye-hospitals reduced 
the terrible scourge of ophthalmia ; schools and colleges 
were founded ; and the army was remodelled and won- 
derfully improved. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What brought Egypt within the sphere of European 
politics in 1798, and again in 1856-1869 ? 

2. What gave rise to the Dual Control of Egyptian affairs 
by France and Britain ? 

3. Give an account of the insurrection of Arabi Pasha. 

4. Describe the rise and progress, and state the results of 
the war with the Mahdi. 

178 



BRITAIN IN EGYPT 

5. Enumerate the benefits which Egypt has received from 
British rule. 

6. Write brief notes on the following persons : Ferdinand 
de Lesseps, General Gordon, Lord Kitchener, Major 
Marchand, Hicks Pasha. 



179 



CHAPTER XXVII 
THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 

WHEN new lands are opened up by European 
peoples, the order of events is usually some- 
what as follows. First come explorers, 
travellers, missionaries, who ascertain the 
nature of the country. Then follow traders, and these 
form settlements and establish factories where they 
exchange European goods for native produce. By and 
by, as the traders' notions of right and wrong, as well 
as their pecuniary interests, are often very different 
from those of the natives, there arise disputes, quarrels, 
and downright fighting, in which the European govern- 
ment naturally sides with its own subjects. Soldiers 
and warships now appear on the scene, and the end of it 
all is annexation ; the European country concerned has 
gained another foreign possession ; and one more un- 
civilized state has been wiped off the map. 

It was by a process such as this that Africa was mainly 
parcelled out among the European Powers. Explorers 
like Livingstone, Stanley, Thomson, Cameron, Lugard, 
and others showed that there were vast districts where 
wealth awaited the merchant-adventurer, where the 
surplus population of the crowded homelands might 
live in decent comfort and with plenty of elbow-room, 
and where the land-hunger of even the most voracious 
of the colonizing nations might be appeased. The 
merchant-adventurers, whether private individuals or 
public companies, and the would-be settlers were not 
180 



THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 

backward in taking up the suggested enterprise ; and so 
eventually there came about a mighty extension of the 
white man's empire. 

But suppose two separate Powers, each desirous of 
protecting its own subjects on the spot, should propose 
to annex one and the same district. What would be 
likely to happen then ? In that case complications 
would arise ; they have arisen many, many times ; and 
the conflicting claims have been settled, in a more or 
less friendly manner, and in a more or less permanent 
and satisfactory fashion, between the governments con- 
cerned. Indeed, these complications have been so 
numerous, and the questions at issue have been proved 
so involved, that anything like an adequate treatment 
of them would run not merely to a few pages, but to 
many volumes. Here, therefore, we must be content 
with a brief summary of results. 

In the south Britain possesses — though this, except 
in matters concerning Imperial affairs, is practically a 
self-governing State — the Dominion of South Africa, 
formed in 1910 by the union of Cape Colony, Natal, the 
Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony. The white 
population consists chiefly of British and Boers, but 
these are far outnumbered by the black races. The 
principal exports are gold, diamonds, wool, wines, and 
ostrich-feathers — shipped from Cape Town, Durban, 
Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and East London. 
Lourenco Marquez, on Delagoa Bay, in Portuguese 
territory, is of importance as being the nearest seaport 
to the Transvaal. Close to Johannesburg, on a ridge 
of hills called Witwatersrand, is situated the richest 
goldfield in the world ; it is said to have an annual 
output worth about one third of that of the total 
gold-production from all available sources. The dis- 
trict round Kimberley, in Griqualand West, possesses 
wonderfully productive diamond mines. Within the 
boundaries of the Dominion, but not forming part of it, 

181 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

is the mountainous district of Basutoland, ruled, like 
the vast stretch of country farther north, known as 
the Bechuanaland Protectorate, by semi-independent 
native chiefs. The late German Southwest Africa is 
administered by the Government of the Union of South 
Africa, and is known as the Southwest Africa Pro- 
tectorate. 

To the north of the Transvaal and Bechuanaland lies 
Rhodesia, extending from the Limpopo River to the 
shore of Lake Tanganyika. As yet the natural wealth 
of this promising district has scarcely been touched. 
At present, cattle-raising is the chief industry, but the 
mines of gold, silver, and coal will some day prove 
very valuable. The chief towns are Bulawayo and 
Salisbury, and the nearest southern port is Beira, over 
the Portuguese border. To the northeast of Rhodesia 
is the Nyasaland Protectorate. 

In East-Central Africa, Britain governs British East 
Africa (now known as the Kenya Colony and Protec- 
torate), the Uganda Protectorate, and British Somali- 
land. The capital is the inland town of Nairobi, and 
the chief seaports are Mombasa and Zanzibar. The 
latter, a town situated on an island of the same name, 
thirty miles from the African coast, was formerly ruled 
by a Sultan, who also governed large tracts of country 
on the mainland ; like the neighboring island of Pemba, 
it exports cloves and coconuts. For some time there 
was considerable friction between Britain and Germany 
as to which of them should occupy Zanzibar ; and it was 
as a return for the German acknowledgment of British 
suzerainty that Britain ceded to Germany the island of 
Heligoland. After the war of 1914-1918 the administra- 
tion of a large portion of German East Africa fell to 
Britain. This territory is now known as ' the Tangan- 
yika Territory.' 

On the west, the largest and most important British 
possession is Nigeria, with exports of palm-oil, rubber, 
182 



THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 

kola-nuts, ivory, and tropical woods. Then come the 
Gold Coast Colony, Sierra Leone, Gambia, the British 
Sphere of the Cameroons, and the British Sphere of 
Togoland. 

French Africa comprises, in the north, Algiers and 
Tunis. The chief towns are Algiers, Tunis, and Oran. 
These are linked up by railway, and trade in cork, 
wine, olives, and esparto-grass. Tunis is situated near 
the site of ancient Carthage ; and a few miles distant 
is the strong naval fortress of Bizerta. Farther south, 
France occupies nearly the whole of the barren and 
inhospitable Sahara, the basins of the Senegal and the 
Upper Niger, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey, the greater 
part of the Cameroons and Togoland, and French Congo. 

Germany, who took up the work of colonization much 
later than her great rivals, had to be content — though 
far from being satisfied — with Togoland, Cameroons, 
German East Africa, and Southwest Africa. These 
possessions she was forced to surrender as a result of the 
war of 1914-1918, and Great Britain was enabled to 
realize the dream of her ardent son Cecil Rhodes of an 
' all-red ' route through Africa from the Cape to Cairo. 

Portugal possesses a part of the Guinea Coast south 
of the Gambia, as well as two large tracts below the 
equator, viz., Angola and Portuguese East Africa. 
Angola, through its ports of Loanda and Benguela, 
exports palm-oil, rubber, and coffee. 

Italy controls a portion of Somaliland and the coast- 
strip of Eritrea on the Red Sea. In 1911, however, 
she annexed Tripoli, thus cutting it off from the Turkish 
Empire. 

Perhaps the most important district of Central Africa, 
that is, from a commercial point of view, is the Belgian 
Congo ; for it has an export of rubber second only to 
that of Brazil. The chief towns are Boma, the capital, 
and Matadi. A railway joins the latter to Leopolds- 
ville, the chief river-port and trading station. 

188 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

The history, too, of the Belgian Congo presents 
features of special interest. The district was first 
thoroughly explored by H. M. Stanley in the years 
1874 to 1877. Failing, however, to convince his own 
countrymen of its great commercial value, Stanley pro- 
ceeded in 1878 to Brussels, and there put his knowledge 
at the disposal of Leopold II, King of the Belgians. 
But, previous to this, Leopold had fixed his eye upon 
Africa as a fitting field for enterprise ; and in 1876 he 
had called together a Geographical Congress at Brussels, 
where he made a speech in which the following passage 
occurred : " The object which unites us here to-day is 
one of those which deserve in the highest degree to 
occupy the friends of humanity. To open to civiliza- 
tion the only part of the globe where it has not yet 
penetrated, to pierce the darkness which envelops entire 
populations, is, I venture to say, a crusade worthy of 
this century of progress." 

Alas that such high-sounding words should have 
been followed by deeds so mean and sordid ! For the 
International Association of the Congo, formed for the 
purpose of founding a real, genuine Congo Free State, 
with a freedom guaranteed by the Powers, eventually 
degenerated into the despotic personal rule of one man, 
viz., Leopold himself; and the project for bringing the 
blessings of civilization to a benighted land became, 
primarily, an ugly scheme of money-making, where 
pecuniary profit came first and the well-being of the 
natives a very bad second indeed. Some good was 
undoubtedly done, but it was overshadowed by great 
black clouds of cruelty and wrong. In this respect, 
however, it is only fair to say that the Belgian Congo 
stands by no means alone in the history of Africa. 
In fact, regarding the Dark Continent as a whole 
— but making a few honorable exceptions — and 
taking Christianity as a type of what is good and alcohol 
as a type of what is evil, one might with truth say that 
184 




185 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

the gifts of Europe to Africa have been missionaries and 
gin — far too little missionary, and far too much gin. 

Leaving the Belgian Congo, with its deplorable lesson 
of high ideals followed by lowly achievement, we com- 
plete the list of territories on the mainland by saying 
that the only States not under European control are 
Abyssinia, the negro republic of Liberia, and Morocco 
— though the last-named certainly comes within the 
sphere of French influence. 

Of the African islands, the Madeiras and Cape Verde 
belong to Portugal, St Vincent, a town on the latter, 
being an important coaling-station. The Canaries, a 
well-known health-resort, are owned by Spain. In the 
Bight of Biafra is the Spanish island of Fernando Po ; 
and the British outposts of St Helena and Ascension lie 
far out in the South Atlantic. Madagascar flies the 
flag of France ; while, a little farther to the east, the 
Union Jack floats over Mauritius. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Name one customary process by which uncivilized 
lands have been gradually annexed by European nations. 

2. State what you know about the history of the 
Congo. 

3. Name the principal African possessions of Britain, 
France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Germany, imme- 
diately before the war of 1914-1918. 

4. What African States were then independent? 



186 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918 : WHAT 
LED TO IT 

ON the 28th of June, 1914, the Archduke 
Francis Ferdinand, nephew of the aged 
Emperor of Austria, and heir to the throne, 
while passing, accompanied by his wife, 
through the streets of Sarajevo, the capital of the 
Austrian province of Bosnia, was fired on by an assassin. 
The ill-fated couple were killed. 

The perpetrator of such a dastardly crime, along with 
any accomplices he might have had, deserved signal 
punishment; on that point there can and could be no 
manner of doubt ; and, had the friends of the Archduke 
been content to bring the murderer, and those who had 
helped him, to judgment, no more need have been said 
on the matter ; it would have been a simple case of a 
court of justice and the common hangman. But it soon 
became clear that Austria-Hungary placed much of the 
responsibility for what had occurred upon the Serbian 
Government, which was said to have encouraged a 
revolutionary movement amongst the Serb inhabitants 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina ; a movement, moreover, of 
which these murders were the logical outcome. 

Now on this question much may be said on both 
sides; for there had long been ill-will between the two 
nations concerned, and — to alter a common proverb — 
when ill-will comes in at the door, gentleness and 
justice fly out of the window. 

187 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Take first the case of Serbia. She bore Austria a 
grudge because the latter, following the bad old rule 
of " might is right," had in 1908 snatched for herself 
the two Slav provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to 
which Serbia, as a Slav nation, thought she had a better 
right. So Serbia had undoubtedly worked, not only to 
obtain access to the sea and to free herself from 
economic dependence on Austria, but also with the aim 
of eventually incorporating Bosnia and Herzegovina in 
a Greater Serbia ; and, in thus working, her people and 
her press had often used violent language, while some of 
the agitators had very likely done violent deeds too. 
It is quite probable that many of the Serbians con- 
sidered this violence justified by the fact that they 
believed it to be directed against what they termed a 
robber state. 

On the other hand, Austria claimed that " possession 
is nine points of the law," that she had already greatly 
improved the condition of the two provinces in ques- 
tion, and that the inhabitants were more happy and 
comfortable than ever they had been before. More- 
over, the Austrians strongly objected to their empire 
being continually threatened by the intrigues of an 
unfriendly neighboring State. 

Under circumstances such as these, it can be no 
matter of surprise that an Austrian was a very unwel- 
come sight in Serbia, and that there were anti-Serbian 
demonstrations in Austria. The plain truth is that 
there were faults on both sides. Indeed, the two 
nations might well be compared to dogs snarling over a 
bone ; the big mastiff had the toothsome morsel as it 
were under his paws, and the little terrier was trying 
to get it away. Altogether this seems to be a fair and 
reasonable view of the whole situation. 

The Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia. — Judging that the 
murder of the Archduke afforded a suitable opportunity 
for putting an end, once for all, to Serbian schemes 
188 



WHAT LED TO THE WAR 

of national expansion, Austria, on July 23, 1914, sent 
an ultimatum to Belgrade. This contained ten 
demands, and Austria insisted upon their being 
accepted within forty-eight hours. In reply, Serbia 
agreed to everything, with the exception of one or two 
articles which would have practically abolished her 
independence as a kingdom, and brought her more or 
less under the overlordship of Austria. Even the 
obnoxious articles, however, she did not absolutely 
reject ; but, as a way out of the difficulty, she offered to 
submit the matter to the decision of " the International 
Tribunal of the Hague, or to the Great Powers which 
took part in the drawing up of the declaration made 
by the Serbian Government on March 31, 1909." * 

Thus, in effect, Serbia said : " We will do everything 
that Austria wishes, except forfeit our independence ; 
and even that question — our very existence as a nation 
— we are willing that an independent board of arbi- 
trators should decide." 

But Serbia did not stand alone. Russia, too, is a 
Slav nation ; and it was well known throughout Europe 
that if the Czar stood aside, and allowed, as it were, 
the little brother to be crushed, the indignant protest 
of his people would probably find expression in a revolu- 
tion. Furthermore, Russia, and Austria had long been 
rivals in the Balkans, where each was wishful to extend 
her power and influence ; and Russia believed that if she 
now refused to protect a threatened Balkan State, her 
prestige in that quarter would be discredited, and the 
whole group of States would be likely to conclude that 
her friendship was scarce worth cultivating. " A friend 
in need is a friend indeed " ; but if the friend is too weak 
or too timid to help where help is sorely needed, what, 
in the name of common sense, is the good of him ? 

Foreseeing international complications, and fearing 
that the blaze would spread if once the flame of war 
1 White Paper, No. 39. 

189 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

were lit, the British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, 
proposed that Britain, Germany, Italy, and France 
should intervene in order to find a method of satisfying 
Austria without destroying Serbian independence. 
Russia consented to the proposal, and France and Italy 
agreed to join the Conference. Germany refused; 
though she must have known that if Austria persisted 
in her high-handed action a great international war 
would be likely to result. 

The proposal of Sir Edward Grey, and the manner in 
which it was received, afford a fair indication of the 
attitude of at least four of the Great Powers. Had the 
Conference taken place, neither Russia nor Austria 
would have dared to override its rulings. 

German Militarism. — It is difficult to believe that 
Austria would have persisted in her exorbitant demands 
— thus venturing upon a certain war with Russia and 
Serbia combined — had she not been sure of German 
support. Indeed, the truth is that Austria was merely 
the catspaw of Germany, and during the crisis acted 
by inspiration from the Kaiser's government, which 
had decided upon war. 

Since 1870 the German spirit had steadily grown more 
militant, until the nation had come to believe that it 
had a mission to impose its Kultur upon the whole 
world. 

During the tense days which preceded the outbreak 
the mobilization of the German army was in full swing. 
For a long time previously preparations had been pro- 
ceeding quietly, and the army chiefs had now only to 
perfect their plans. 

Faced with the menace of German and Austrian 
mobilization, what could Russia do but take a similar 
course ? The German Government seized upon this as 
a pretext for the war they wanted. Ignoring their own 
activity, they demanded that Russian mobilization 
should cease. At that moment Austria was exhibiting 
190 



WHAT LED TO THE WAR 

signs that she might be induced to reconsider her 
demands upon Serbia, and the German ultimatum to 
Russia undoubtedly was intended to precipitate the 
conflict. On July 31 Germany declared war on Russia 
and her ally, France. On the succeeding day the 
Czar telegraphed to King George V as follows : " In 
this solemn hour I wish to assure you once more that I 
have done all in my power to avert war." Comment- 
ing upon this, the British Grey Book says : " It is right 
to say that His Majesty's Government believe this to be 
a true statement of the attitude both of Russia and 
France throughout this crisis. On the other hand, 
with every wish to be fair and just, it will be admitted 
that the response of Germany and Austria gave no 
evidence of a sincere desire to save the peace of 
Europe." 

So far, then, two members of the Alliance, viz., 
Germany and Austria, were ranged against two mem- 
bers of the Entente, Russia and France. As yet Italy 
remained neutral ; for, though bound by her treaties 
with Germany and Austria to come to their aid if they 
were attacked by France or Russia, she now held that 
Germany and Austria were the real aggressors, not 
Russia and France. 

The Neutrality of Belgium. — As yet, too, Britain also 
remained neutral ; and, to keep her so, Germany 
declared that if British neutrality were preserved she, 
Germany, would promise not to take French territory 
in Europe, and that the ' integrity ' of Belgium would 
be restored after the war if Belgium did not resist the 
passage of German troops through her territory to 
Paris. No guarantee, however, was given as to (1) the 
' integrity ' of Belgium if she did resist, (2) the taking 
of French colonies, and the setting up of German naval 
bases all over the world, and (3) the crushing of France 
under the iron heel of Germany, and the extortion of a 
huge war indemnity. 

191 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Britain refused what Mr Asquith, the Prime Minister, 
characterized as "an infamous proposal," for by the 
Treaty of 1839, to which Germany and France were 
also parties, Britain was in honor bound to uphold the 
neutrality of Belgium. Accordingly, when Germany, 
in defiance of her treaty obligations, invaded Belgium, 
a British ultimatum went to Berlin on August 4; 
and at 11 p.m. on that day Britain and Germany 
were at war. 

This chapter may fittingly conclude by extracts taken 
from two speeches, one delivered on August 4, 1914, 
by the German Chancellor in the Reichstag, the other 
by the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons 
two days later. 

The former runs thus : " We are now in a state of 
necessity, and necessity knows no law. . . . We were 
compelled to override the just protest of the Luxem- 
burg and Belgian Governments. The wrong, I speak 
openly, we are committing we will endeavor to 
make good as soon as our military goal has been 
reached." 

In the latter, Mr Asquith says : " What would have 
been the position of Great Britain to-day ... if we 
had assented to this infamous proposal ? Yes, and 
what are we to get in return for the betrayal of our 
friends and the dishonor of our obligations ? What 
are we to get in return ? A promise, nothing more ; a 
promise as to what Germany would do in certain 
eventualities ; a promise, be it observed — I am sorry to 
have to say it, but it must be put on record — given by 
a Power which was at that very moment announcing its 
intention to violate its own treaty and inviting us to do 
the same. I can only say, if we had dallied or tem- 
porized, we, as a Government, should have covered 
ourselves with dishonor, and we should have 
betrayed the interests of our country, of which we 
are trustees." 
192 



WHAT LED TO THE WAR 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Previous to 1914 a state of ill-will existed between 
Austria and Serbia. Give the causes of this. 

2. What led to the ultimatum sent to Serbia by Austria 
on July 23, 1914? Give the Serbian reply. 

3. What was Sir Edward Grey's proposition regarding the 
points at issue, and how was it received ? 

4. Give the successive steps by which Russia, Germany, 
France, and Britain became involved in the war. Why did 
Italy for the time remain neutral ? 



193 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918: ITS COURSE— I 

ON August 1, 1914, German troops invaded the 
Duchy of Luxemburg, which, however, after 
protesting against this breach of neutrality, 
decided to make no armed resistance. 
On the following day Germany sent an ultimatum to 
Belgium, demanding a free and unimpeded passage 
through her territories. This Belgium refused ; she 
would fight rather than submit to such an illegal claim. 
Ignoring Belgium's attitude, German forces now poured 
across the frontier, and were opposed by Belgian troops. 
The Austro-German plan of campaign appears to have 
been : (1) to post on the east armies strong enough to 
hold the Russians, for the time being, in check ; (2) to 
sweep, in the meanwhile, rapidly through Belgium, and 
overwhelm the French before their military prepara- 
tions had been completed ; the route through Belgium 
was chosen because it was considered that this afforded 
the easiest and surest way of access to France ; (3) 
leaving a guard large enough to overawe the defeated 
French — say 500,000 men — to concentrate upon and 
overthrow Russia. 

But to make this plan thoroughly successful two 
things were necessary, viz., (1) Belgian resistance must 
be of so slight a character as to delay the German 
progress scarcely at all ; for here time was of prime 
importance, as it was essential that the German attack 
should be pressed home, in accordance with their war- 
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195 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

maxim " Hit first, hit hard, and hit often," before the 
French military preparations were completed ; (2) the 
Austro-Germans on the east must be strong enough to 
hold Russia in check. On both points, as we shall see 
in the course of our story, the Austro-Germans had 
made serious miscalculations ; they were wrong in the 
facts on which they based their judgments, and they 
were wrong in their deductions. 

On August 6 the Germans attacked the fortified 
Belgian town of Liege, which, however, did not prove 
the easy prey that had been anticipated ; it held out 
bravely for nine days, and so gave the French what 
they sorely needed — time for hurrying on their prepara- 
tions. 

On August 15 Japan, who was bound by treaty 
obligations to Britain, and who resented Germany's 
attitude toward her in the Far East, sent an ultimatum 
to Berlin demanding the withdrawal of German ships 
of war from the Pacific station, and also the evacuation 
of Kiao-chow. As Germany refused these demands, 
Japan declared war, and, in conjunction with British 
forces, bombarded and blockaded the German fortified 
naval base of Tsingtau. With the fall of Tsingtau on 
November 7, Germany lost a cherished possession upon 
which large sums of money and much engineering skill 
had been lavished. 

On August 16 the landing of the British Expedi- 
tionary Force in Northern France was safely completed ; 
and, on the same date, the Russians announced that, so 
for from being held in check in their own country, they 
had invaded East Prussia, where they had taken two 
towns. 

Having captured Liege, the Germans were free to 
continue their onward course. A portion of the army 
turned toward Brussels, which was entered on August 
20. Then, rapidly extending the area of their opera- 
tions, the Germans overran a great part of Belgium. 
196 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— I 

Soon they appeared before Antwerp, and found it 
defended by the Belgian army assisted by a British 
naval brigade. On October 9 they broke through 
the cordon of forts, and occupied the city itself. Most 
of the garrison, however, succeeded in making its 
escape. 

Meanwhile, the main body of the Germans marched 
off to the south — their heavy guns shattering the forts 
that would have delayed their progress— until they 
came in touch with the Entente Allies. But these 
proved quite unable to check the career of the invading 
hosts, who pressed on vigorously, driving the Allies 
before them. The British retreat from Mons will long 
be remembered as one of the most trying ordeals to 
which an army has ever been subjected ; but, though 
assailed by overwhelming numbers and a great 
superiority of guns and ammunition ; and though suffer- 
ing severely from fatigue, privations, and lack of neces- 
sary rest and sleep, the Allies gave ground, day after 
day, and night after night, in good order. The retreat 
never became a rout, and the gallant troops, like a steel 
spring that is bent but not broken, waited for the 
moment of recoil. 

That moment soon came ; for it was not destined 
that the Germans should repeat their easy triumph of 
1870. True, Paris was so seriously threatened that, on 
September 3, the French Government left for Bordeaux, 
but as events turned out they might safely have stayed 
where they were. 

The First Battle of the Marne.— On September 7 the 
retreat came to an end, and the bent steel straightened 
itself. Making a determined stand on the river Marne, 
and with the aid of a French army which had meantime 
been gathering in the neighborhood of Paris, and which 
was rushed into action in taxicabs from the metropolis, 
Joffre turned the tables upon the enemy and broke 
through their line. It was one of the decisive battles 

197 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

of the war, and the Germans were hurled back to the 
line of the Aisne with heavy losses in prisoners 
and guns. The first phase of the war thus ended 
with a serious check to the German plans, and 
Paris was saved. 

Here I will ask you to note that, so far, we have con- 
fined our attention to the attack by way of Belgium. 
We have done this because the Belgian campaign was 
the most important of all the German operations, the 
hinge, as it were, upon which everything turned, the 
one vital movement. At the same time, however, we 
must remember that other German armies were 
advancing farther to the east, and that these were at 
all points faced by the French. 

Up to the end of the German retreat from the Marne, 
fighting had everywhere been largely in the open field, 
but now it developed into a system of trench-warfare ; 
so that from Switzerland right across to the shores of 
the North Sea the belligerents opposed each other in 
two long and irregular lines. Such excellent cover did 
the trenches afford, and so ingenious and effective were 
the devices for defending them, that one thing soon 
became abundantly clear : the side that would attempt 
to break through must be prepared for very heavy 
losses. Attempts were made — notably by the Germans 
to reach Calais — but, at the close of the year 1915, no 
very substantial territorial gains had been made either 
by German or Entente forces. 

The Russian Diversion. — Meanwhile, on the eastern 
front affairs took more than one dramatic turn. For 
some time the Russians, who had mobilized much more 
quickly than the Germans anticipated, were able to 
carry all before them on their right wing, and their 
advance into East Prussia caused great consternation 
throughout Germany. Presently, however, reinforce- 
ments from the west were hurried across country, and 
the Russians were driven back over their own boundary 
198 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— I 

line. They had succeeded in their grand object, which 
was to relieve the pressure upon the western front, 
and their vigorous offensive contributed to foil the 
German designs upon Paris and the Channel ports. 

Farther south, they proved to be far more formidable 
foes, and, after a series of victories over the Austrians, 
succeeded in penetrating as far as the strong fortress 
of Przemysl, which they captured on March 22, 1915. 
Then they attempted to cross the Carpathian Moun- 
tains, with the aim of making a descent upon the 
Hungarian Plain. Possibly, too, their presence so near 
to the Silesian frontier was meant as a prelude to an 
attack upon Germany in that quarter. 

Early in April, however, large bodies of German 
troops were sent to the aid of the Austrians, and Field- 
Marshal von Hindenburg took command of the com- 
bined forces. The eastern campaign now proved 
curiously like that on the west. Under the pressure 
of numbers, more and larger guns, and an immense 
superiority in stores of ammunition, the Russians gave 
way. But so skilfully were they handled by the Grand 
Duke Nicholas, and so bravely and stubbornly did they 
fight a succession of rear-guard actions, that both the 
crushing and the enveloping movements at which Hin- 
denburg aimed failed, and the Russian army, heavily 
though it suffered, was not dispersed, was not sur- 
rounded, but remained an effective fighting force. On 
August 4 the Austro-Germans captured Warsaw, the 
capital of Russian Poland, and, pressing onward, took 
town after town, and fortress after fortress. But they 
had failed in their main objective : they had not 
destrpyed the Russian army. Moreover, under circum- 
stances such as these, and with every mile of progress 
taking them farther and farther away from their own 
splendid system of strategic railways, they could not 
well hope to penetrate far into the mighty interior of 
the enemy's country. So by and by they came to a 

199 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

halt; and, as in the west, so in the east, trench war- 
fare became the order of the day. The eastern 
trenches, however, were by no means so complete and 
elaborate as those on the west ; so that both the 
Russian and the Austro-German troops were able to 
make considerable incursions into enemy territory, 
there was more freedom of movement, and there was 
more field-fighting. 

Turkey enters the War. — But the war had not been 
waged very long before it became evident that the area 
of operations, large though it now was, would become 
much larger still. The Kaiser's eyes had been turned 
eastward, where a vast Asiatic empire seemed to 
beckon to him. The scheme for a railway from Berlin 
to Bagdad, financed by Germany, had all but even- 
tuated, and only a link remained to be added. To safe- 
guard this Middle-European ' corridor ' the goodwill of 
Turkey was essential, and consequently every effort had 
been made to secure this. The Sultan, ever ready to 
play one Power against another, had turned a willing 
ear, and one of the consequences of the new friendship 
was that the Turkish army was now officered by Ger- 
mans, in whose hands it had again become a respectable 
military machine. Presently the actions of Turkey 
grew so suspicious, not to say unfriendly, that on 
November 5, 1914, Britain declared war upon her. 
Early in the February of 1915 the Turks made a raid 
on the Suez Canal, but were easily beaten off. 

On February 25 the combined French and English 
Mediterranean fleets attacked the forts lining the Dar- 
danelles, with the object of forcing a passage to Con- 
stantinople. As they could not, however, manage to 
break a way through, Allied troops were dispatched, 
on April 25, to the Gallipoli Peninsula, in the hope that, 
where the navy alone had failed, army and navy 
together might succeed. Great expectations were 
formed of the Gallipoli adventure, but they were 
200 



AEGEAN 




The Gallipoli Peninsula 



201 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

doomed to disappointment. To an invading force the 
configuration of the country offered great obstacles; 
while the Turks, under German tutelage, had strongly 
fortified their defensive positions ; moreover, all the 
supplies had to come by sea, there was great scarcity 
of water, and the sanitary conditions proved most un- 
healthy. Consequently, in spite of the most heroic 
endeavors — in which the contingents from Australia 
and New Zealand conducted themselves with con- 
spicuous intrepidity and dash — the Allies concluded 
that the expedition did not make headway sufficient to 
justify the great expenditure of lives which the under- 
taking had involved and was still involving; in short, 
it was decided that the game was not worth the candle. 
On December 19 the troops, guns, and stores were 
withdrawn without loss from Anzac and Suvla Bay, 
and the southern end of the peninsula was evacuated 
shortly afterward. 

Italy throws in her Lot with the Allies. — On May 23 
Italy, too, found herself drawn into the huge war- 
whirlpool ; for, believing that she could best satisfy her 
national aspirations by entering into alliance with the 
Powers of the Entente, she declared war upon Austria, 
and forthwith invaded territory which she believed to 
be rightly hers, and which Austria had refused to give 
up. She fought bravely and well ; but, handicapped 
by the mountainous nature of the district in which she 
had to operate, and faced by determined opposition, 
she was not, up to the close of 1915, able to carry her 
campaign to a successful issue — though she made con- 
siderable progress. 

And now, to change the metaphor of the preceding 
chapter, let us consider the fate of the spark from 
which this stupendous war-flame spread ; let us turn 
to Serbia. Hitherto she had resisted all attempts to 
subdue her; and not only had she flung back the 
Austrian armies which had twice crossed her frontier, 
202 




The Pan-German Plan 

Showing ' Middle Europe,' and Germany's main route to the East (the Berlin 
to Bagdad Railway) as it was in January 1918. 
Bulgaria surrendered to the Allies, September 1918. 



203 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

but she had, for some time, been able to maintain a 
footing on Austrian soil. But now a much more trying 
experience awaited her; for German troops appeared 
on the scene and joined those of Austria. The com- 
bined forces began the third Serbian invasion on 
October 9, 1915, and, three days later, they reoccupied 
the capital, Belgrade. Retreating southward, the 
Serbians prepared to defend themselves among their 
mountains, fully resolved to dispute every inch of the 
enemy's way. 

Possibly — for they are born fighters, and they were 
now inspired by their recent successes against the 
Austrians — the Serbians would have been able to hold 
their own in spite of the German reinforcements, had 
it not been that Bulgaria chose this moment for joining 
the ranks of the Central Powers. Thus the sorely 
harassed defenders had now to fight on two fronts — 
a northern, where they were opposed by the Austro- 
Germans, and a southern, where they were attacked by 
the Bulgarians. Against such desperate odds any- 
thing like a successful resistance was impossible ; so the 
Serbians, driven back, and still back, were compelled, 
all that was left of them, to cross the boundaries of their 
native land, and take refuge, some in the highlands of 
Montenegro, some in Albania, and some in Macedonia. 
With the conquest of Serbia and Montenegro, Germany, 
Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey were now linked up in 
one continuous line, so that there was through com- 
munication from Berlin to Constantinople. 

But where, in the meantime, were Serbia's allies, the 
Great Powers of the Entente ? A large Russian force 
was said to be concentrated on the Rumanian border, 
with the aim of attacking Bulgaria ; but between this 
force and its objective there interposed the territory of 
a neutral State, so, for the present, the way of the 
Russians was barred. 

In the South, on October 5, a contingent of French 
204 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR -I 

and British troops, at the invitation of M. Venizelos, 
the Greek Premier, landed at Saloniki. The Premier's 
idea undoubtedly was that Greece, which was under 
treaty obligations to Serbia, should join the latter in 
fighting what was, on the enemy's part, an unmistak- 
able war of aggression, and that the French and British 
should assist. King Constantine, however, was strongly 
under German influence, and he refused to sanction this 
policy. M. Venizelos resigned, and Greece announced 
that she was determined to maintain an attitude of 
neutrality. She entered a formal protest against the 
presence of the Allies on Greek soil, but made no 
attempt to interfere with their movements. 

Marching northward, the Allies made a brave attempt 
to come to Serbia's rescue ; but, as the Greeks had 
refused to join them, their numbers proved far too 
small for such a serious undertaking. Eventually they 
withdrew into Greece, where they fortified themselves 
in the neighborhood of Saloniki. 

Such is a brief summary of the military events up to 
the close of the year 1915. Fighting, however, occurred 
also in Egypt — which, on December 17, 1914, was com- 
pletely detached from the Ottoman Empire, and taken 
over as a British Protectorate, with Prince Hussein 
Kamel Pasha as Sultan — in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, 
Persia, the Colonies, and elsewhere. But these, after 
all, may be regarded as only minor operations. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What was the Austro-German plan of campaign, and 
what two conditions were necessary to its success ? 

2. Trace the course of the German invasion up to the first 
battle of the Marne. 

3. Give an account of the Russian advance and subse- 
quent retreat. 

205 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

4. For what main reason had the Kaiser cultivated the 
friendship of Turkey ? 

5. Describe the Gallipoli adventure. 

6. Follow the course of Serbian affairs up to the end of 
1915. 

7. What was at that time the situation of Greece? 



20ft 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918 : ITS COURSE— II 

jk T the end of the preceding chapter we left 
/% the war situation somewhat as follows. In 

/ % the middle of Europe stood the solid block of 
■*- -^* the Central Powers, viz., Germany, Austria, 
Bulgaria, and Turkey ; and Serbia having been overrun, 
there was through communication from Berlin to Con- 
stantinople. Blockading the Central Powers, though 
not completely encircling them, were France, Britain, 
and the remnants of the Belgian army on the west ; 
Russia on the east; on the south the Italians and an 
Entente expeditionary force stationed in and around 
Saloniki. While last, but not least, the Entente fleets, 
of which the British navy formed the backbone, had 
closed the gates of the sea. We will take these respec- 
tive frontiers one by one. 

Of the two forces blockading the south, that which 
was stationed in and about Saloniki remained for a long 
time comparatively inactive; for the Bulgars, with a 
considerable stiffening of German troops, occupied on 
the heights a commanding position from which it did 
not appear that they could be completely dislodged 
except at a greater cost of lives than the Entente were 
willing to pay. 

But the directors of Entente strategy claimed that, 
though the Saloniki expeditionary force had, in a mili- 
tary sense, disappointed the expectations of its advo- 
cates, it had, in a political respect, done good service. 

207 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

King Constantine of Greece had from the very first 
shown strong German leanings, and had it not been for 
the near presence of the Saloniki army he would 
probably either have joined Germany outright, or 
winked at the formation of German submarine bases 
among the islands of the Greek archipelago — a circum- 
stance which might well have meant disaster to the 
Entente's predominance in the Mediterranean. Con- 
stantine remained neutral, it is true, but the good 
faith of his neutrality was so profoundly distrusted by 
the Allies that in order to protect themselves against 
possible treachery they demanded from the Greeks 
substantial guarantees. These, under pressure, were 
grudgingly granted. Between growing pressure 
from outside and the militant opinions favorable to 
the Allies from within the nation, the position of Con- 
stantine became impossible, and on June 12, 1917, he 
abdicated. This proceeding was followed by the 
elimination of much pro-German influence from the 
Government and Court, and Greek troops were soon 
found fighting side by side with the Saloniki force. 
More than a year passed, however, before the situation 
underwent any substantial change ; then, in September 
1918, there began a new Macedonian offensive, and it 
was found that conditions had greatly changed. The 
morale of the Bulgars had suffered during their long 
defensive operations ; their supplies of food, clothing, 
and ammunition were scanty ; they could now rely no 
longer on a strong backing from Germany — who 
required all her fighting forces on the western front. 
The new offensive met with dramatic success; the 
Bulgars were heavily defeated and retreated in great 
disorder. On September 29 their army and their 
Government unconditionally surrendered. It was a 
fatal blow to Germany, and from that moment her 
leaders abandoned hope. 

The second force blockading the southern frontier of 
208 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

the Central Powers was the army of Italy. At inter- 
vals the Italians launched three big offensives ; one on 
August 6, 1916 ; a second on November 1 of the same 
year; and a third on May 14, 1917. But, although 
considerable progress was made, the results proved to 
be of no decisive character, and the Austrian front 
remained unbroken. 

In the October of 1917, however, there came a sudden 
turn in fortune's wheel. Concentrating a great mass 
of artillery and large bodies of troops, the Austrians, 
stiffened by several German divisions, made a heavy 
attack at Caporetto, broke clean through the Italian 
defence, took immense numbers of prisoners and guns, 
and finally came down into the Venetian plain. Re- 
tiring in confusion, the Italians rapidly gave ground ; 
and it seemed as though the peninsula lay at the 
mercy of the invaders. But all was not yet lost. 
All is never lost unless the spirit be broken; and, 
though crushed and disorganized, the Italians did not 
give up hope. Bravely they turned at bay on the 
line of the Piave, where they prepared to make a firm 
stand. 

Meanwhile, the western command had observed with 
alarm the rapid Austrian advance. Large bodies of 
French and British troops were rushed to the Piave, 
and soon stood shoulder to shoulder with the Italians. 
Between them the Allies now fought the enemy to a 
standstill ; the formidable Austrian offensive lost its 
momentum ; and again the opposing forces faced each 
other on a front that, though it swayed here and there, 
in the main stood stable and unyielding. 

Austria Finally Defeated. — Thus matters continued 
until, in the October of 1918, the Italians launched their 
great counter-offensive, and the conditions proved 
curiously similar to those of the final attack made by 
the Saloniki contingent on the Bulgars. Loss of morale, 
deficiency in stores, lack of German support, all contri- 
o 209 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

buted largely to the signal success of the Italians. The 
Austrians were flung back, leaving behind them 
prisoners whose numbers ran into six figures. As a 
fighting force, the vast Austrian army had ceased to 
exist, and on November 3 they signed an armistice, the 
conditions of which amounted to a virtual surrender. 
The armistice was followed by the break-up of the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire into a number of indepen- 
dent States. 

The Collapse of Russia. — On the eastern frontier, at 
the close of 1915, the Austro-Germans had succeeded in 
penetrating deep into Russian territory. By and by, 
however, the Russian army found itself able to make a 
stand. Trench warfare ensued for some months, until, 
on June 4, 1916, the Russians once more attacked under 
General Brusiloff. This was Russia's last attempt at 
serious offensive operations, and, after obtaining initial 
success, it collapsed. The war-spirit, both in the 
Russian army and among the Russian people, was 
rapidly breaking down. Great dissatisfaction was felt 
throughout the country, not only as to the manner in 
which military operations had been conducted, but also 
as to the methods by which civil and political affairs 
were administered. Russia was drifting fast toward a 
state of revolution, and in March 1917 there was a vast 
upheaval. The Czar abdicated, and a revolutionary 
government was set up which for some time longer 
endeavored, though without much success, to carry on 
the war. In September a republic was proclaimed; 
this, after considerable disturbances throughout the 
length and breadth of the land, fell into the hands of 
the extreme party. In December the army and the 
general staff surrendered to the Bolshevists, as the 
extremists are called. 

No sooner had the army capitulated than the Bol- 
shevists signed an armistice with the Austro-Germans, 
and in February 1918 they announced that Russia was 
210 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

no longer in a state of war. With an army rendered 
powerless by a complete collapse of discipline, Russia 
was now no longer in a condition to offer resistance, and, 
taking advantage of the powerlessness of that unhappy 
country, the Germans began to penetrate more deeply 
into the interior. In March 1918 so strong was their 
position that they were able to dictate to Russia the 
severe, grasping, and humiliating Peace of Brest- 
Litovsk. As happened in the case of Austria-Hungary, 
the huge Russian Empire now split up into a number of 
independent States. 

In July 1918 the unfortunate ex-Czar and his family 
were brutally murdered. 

Rumania and Turkey. — Now though the contest 
between Russia and the Austro-Germans may be 
regarded as the chief factor in the results on the 
eastern frontier, four others remain to be men- 
tioned briefly. 

1. On August 27, 1916, Rumania, who wished to 
extend her boundaries so as to include the Rumanian 
districts at that time under Hungarian rule, and who 
believed that now was the time to satisfy her national 
aspirations, decided to join the Powers of the Entente ; 
and accordingly on that date she entered the war. 
Pursuing a policy of rash enterprise, she invaded Hun- 
gary, and at first all went well with her. But the 
enemy, bringing up strong reinforcements, quickly 
drove her back, and then pressed forward into the 
Rumanian plain. Help from Russia — on which the 
Rumanians had based their hopes of a triumphant 
issue — proved quite inadequate ; and in December the 
Austro-Germans captured Bucarest. The war, how- 
ever, still lingered on ; but eventually Rumania was 
compelled to sign peace by the Treaty of Bucarest, the 
terms of which meant rich spoils to the victors and 
poverty and despair to the vanquished. 

2. As the outlying portions of the Asiatic territory 

211 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

of Turkey were peculiarly open to attack from the 
north, the Russians, in April 1917, crossed the Black 
Sea and occupied the port of Trebizond. Then, 
striking southward, they succeeded in capturing the 
inland fortress of Erzinjan ; and, extending their opera- 
tions still farther to the south, they won a series of 
victories over the Turks. With the outbreak, however, 
of the Russian revolution, the Armenian enterprise 
languished ; Russian troops were withdrawn ; and by the 
end of April 1918 the Turks once more found themselves 
in possession of their seaboard towns. 

3. A second vulnerable spot in Turkey's Asiatic 
Empire lay at the head of the Persian Gulf; and 
accordingly, at the end of 1914. forces of British and 
Indian troops occupied Basra. These forces, following 
the Tigris valley, advanced into Mesopotamia — where 
they met with varying fortunes. By the end of Sep- 
tember 1915 they had reached and taken Kut-el-Amara ; 
but in April 1916 they lost it again — when the whole 
garrison was forced by starvation to capitulate. In 
February 1917 Kut-el-Amara was recaptured ; and in 
March Bagdad, one of the wonder-cities of the East, 
fell into British hands. Such were the outstanding 
features of the Mesopotamian campaign — which even- 
tually succeeded in shattering Turkish predominance 
in the Euphrates and Tigris valleys. 

4. After their ambitious attempt, at the beginning of 
1915, to capture the Suez Canal, and thus sever com- 
munications between Britain and India, the Turks were 
able to act only on the defensive ; and they were driven 
northward through Palestine, closely followed by 
British and Colonial troops assisted by a contingent 
from India. It was not, however, until the December 
of 1917 that Jerusalem fell — to be followed three months 
later by the capture of Jericho. For some time after 
this no very striking event occurred in the Palestine 
campaign. But in September 1918 a fresh British 
212 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

advance took place, Damascus and Aleppo were taken, 
and the main body of the Turkish army was finally cut 
off and compelled to lay down its arms. It was 
probably this disaster that broke the back of Turkey's 
fast waning resistance. Recognizing her hopeless 
position, in October she asked for and obtained an 
armistice. 

We now come to the western frontier, which proved 
to be the decisive field of operations, the theatre of 
war where the fight was fought to a finish. Before the 
brilliance of this stupendous struggle, all others that 
were then taking place pale like the moon at sunrise. 
Some of the minor enterprises, indeed, have been spoken 
of as ' mere side-shows.' But their success contributed 
to that of the main enterprise ; while, on the other 
hand, undoubtedly the main operations made success in 
the ' side-shows ' possible. 

The Attempt on Verdun.— In Chapter XXIX we left 
the Entente facing the Central Powers in a trench war 
stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea. In the 
April of 1916, however, the Germans made a deter- 
mined attempt to break through, selecting as their point 
of attack the strong fortress of Verdun. If they suc- 
ceeded, not only would the loss of Verdun be a great 
blow to French prestige, but the rupture of the line at 
that spot would open up the road to Paris. They did 
not succeed. The chronicle of the Verdun enterprise 
abounds in terrible stories of assault and counter- 
assault in which the losses on each side were extremely 
heavy ; but the Germans, refusing to acknowledge their 
plan as impossible of execution, persevered day after 
day and month after month right up to the close of 
December — at the end of which period they found them- 
selves no nearer attaining their objective than on the 
day when they initiated it. Battered almost out of 
recognition, Verdun stood firm. 

Perhaps one reason why the Germans were so reluc- 

213 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

tant to abandon what has been termed ' the Verdun 
gamble ' was that they believed their chances of gaining 
a final victory in the war to be growing less from day to 
day ; and, unless they could strike a decisive blow soon, 
they might never have the opportunity of striking it 
at all. For, on May 24, 1916, the British Parliament, 
abandoning for the time past usages and traditions, 
passed a Conscription Bill — which meant that the 
British army, from being a force of, at most, a few 
hundred thousands, would, if the war continued, even- 
tually expand into millions of effectives. Moreover, 
the expansion in the output of guns and ammunition 
kept pace with that of the army which was to 
use them ; and all the great industrial resources of 
Britain were enlisted in the service of the Ministry 
of Munitions. 

Now while the Germans were attempting to break 
through the French lines at Verdun, the Entente were 
also busy in attempting to break through the German 
lines between Verdun and the North Sea ; and these 
attempts, too, proved both costly and indecisive. It 
seemed, therefore, that the formidable fortifications 
behind which each side had sheltered itself would turn 
out to be impregnable, and that the struggle would 
develop into a war of attrition. 

The War Underseas. — But this Germany did not 
want; and, thinking by this means completely to 
isolate the Island Kingdom from all communication 
with the outside world, she announced, on January 31, 
1917, that she intended to enter upon an unrestricted 
submarine warfare. This intention she duly carried 
into execution, and thus, besides a vast number of ships 
of the Allies, including hospital ships, she sent many 
merchant vessels belonging to neutral States — together 
with crews and passengers — to the bottom of the sea. 
In all, some 15,000 British seamen lost their lives 
during the course of the war underseas. German 
214 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

' frightfulness ' did not avail to keep a single British 
vessel off the high seas while it had the power to 
ride the wave. 

Germany's campaign underseas was a boomerang 
which eventually recoiled with decisive effect. The 
naval blockade of Germany by the British had several 
times threatened to involve the latter in disputes with 
the United States, for America has always been jealous 
of interference with her commerce on the high seas, and 
the blockade necessitated the overhauling of ships 
bound for adjacent neutral ports, since American cotton 
and other goods were leaking into Germany, through 
Holland in particular. The friction between the two 
great Anglo-Saxon nations might have developed but 
for the greater outrage to international law involved in 
the indiscriminate sinking of neutral vessels by the 
Germans. America protested in vain, and the situation 
at length was so intolerable that on April 6, 1917, she 
declared war on Germany. Here it may be pointed out 
that the Germans had perpetrated three grave errors 
of judgment. (1) They had counted upon America 
refusing to fight ; (2) they had counted upon their sub- 
marines preventing the landing of American troops on 
European soil if America decided to fight ; and (3) they 
had counted upon these troops, even if they did land, 
arriving both too late and in small numbers. All these 
expectations were disappointed ; for (1) the Americans 
entered with spirit into the war ; (2) their troops crossed 
the Atlantic with very little interference from the Ger- 
man submarines ; and (3) they arrived in time to be 
effective in the latter phases of the war, and in numbers 
sufficient to tip the balance of strength most effectually 
in favor of the Entente. In less than eighteen months 
they held forty miles of the western front, and at the 
end of July 1918 they took an important part in the 
second battle of the Marne. Eventually America suc- 
ceeded in concentrating more than two million men in 

215 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

France and Flanders — with a quarter of a million more 
arriving every month. 

The Closing Scenes. — We now come to the closing 
scenes of the great war-drama. On March 21, 1918, 
the Germans, massing together every available resource 
of men and guns, hurled themselves against the western 
lines. Three objects they had in view — to drive in, 
at Amiens, a wedge between the French and the British 
armies ; to capture the Channel ports ; and to reach 
Paris. And they nearly succeeded in all three attempts. 
From March 21 till the middle of July they pressed on 
and on, inflicting terrible losses on the defenders, and 
gaining ground at a rate which, at first, must have 
exceeded even their expectations. 

In the middle of July, however, General Foch, who 
had been appointed Generalissimo of the Entente 
forces, regained the initiative, and began a series of 
counter-attacks before which the Germans — who had 
committed the fatal blunder of under-estimating their 
enemy — were obliged to give way. Blow after blow, 
at various points in the line, did Foch deliver, until 
the Germans were compelled to relinquish all, and more 
than all, of the territorial gains they had made by their 
March offensive. On July 20 they suffered their second 
great reverse at the Marne ; during August they were 
driven from Soissons, Bapaume, St Mihiel, and Noyon ; 
in September they lost Peronne, and abandoned the 
famous Hindenburg Line ; and October found the Allies 
once more in possession of St Quentin, Cambrai, Le 
Cateau, Laon, Ostend, Lille, and Douai — with the Bel- 
gian coast quite clear of the enemy. One of the most 
dramatic of the final strokes of the war was the taking of 
Sedan by the Americans in November. 

The Armistice. — Abandoned by all her allies, and her 
civil population clamoring for peace, Germany, faced 
with a total military collapse, now proposed a cessation 
of hostilities. On November 9 German plenipotentiaries 
216 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

arrived at the headquarters of the Allies ; two days later 
an armistice was signed, and righting ceased at 11 a.m. 
The terms of the armistice were thirty-five in number, 
and included the most substantial guarantees that Ger- 
many should, pending and during a proposed Peace 
Conference, be put quite out of action as a military 
power. 

On November 9 the Kaiser abdicated and fled to 
Holland, the revolutionary party (' the Reds ') seized 
the public offices in Berlin, and united Socialists under 
Chancellor Ebert formed a government. 

Naval Operations of the War. — And now, finally, 
what did the Entente navies, of which, as we have 
already said, the British fleet formed the backbone, do 
to help in the winning of the war ? 

1. They convoyed the first English Expeditionary 
Force across the Channel, which henceforth was kept 
an open highway for the following hosts raised by Lord 
Kitchener and his successors. 

2. They enabled the troops of the Dominions, of 
India, and of the French colonial army to be placed on 
the western and other fronts. 

3. They secured the shores of France against attack, 
and thus made the whole strength of the French army 
available for the fighting line. 

4. They prevented the German navy from concen- 
trating for an attack on the Russian sea-bases and 
Petrograd. 

5. They shielded Italy from the irresistible pressure 
which would otherwise have been put upon her to take 
her place as a member of the Triple Alliance. 

6. They closed to the Germans the whole world out- 
side Europe, and kept these countries open to the 
Entente as sources of supply. 

7. They made the Atlantic safe for the crossing of 
the American army, and for its supplies. 

Although no noteworthy naval action took place 

217 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

immediately on the outbreak of the war — the German 
fleet being penned up in the Bight of Heligoland, and, 
for the most part, refusing to come out — the Entente 
suffered at first from the depredations of German 
cruisers still remaining at large. A squadron of these 
inflicted a defeat on the British off Coronel on Novem- 
ber 1, 1914; but the same squadron, on December 8 of 
the same year, was annihilated near the Falkland Isles. 
Single raiders ultimately shared the same fate ; one by 
one they were hunted down and sunk, until all had 
been swept from the seas. 

The British coast, however, suffered not a little from 
' tip-and-run ' bombardments, in which fast German 
vessels, slipping through the blockade, would shell some 
North Sea port for a few minutes, and then rush back 
at full speed to their base. But a naval action off the 
Dogger Bank on January 24, 1915, in which the Bliicher 
was sunk, and subsequent minor engagements between 
British patrols and German raiding craft, taught the 
enemy the requisite lesson ; so that raids diminished, 
and were eventually well-nigh abandoned. 

The only great fleet action of the war took place off 
the coast of Jutland on May 31, 1916. In this the 
Germans claimed a victory. But it is sufficient to show 
on which side victory lay if we mark the fact that the 
Germans quitted the scene of action in disorder, and 
retired to their ports, to reissue thence only when they 
came out to surrender at the end of the war. They 
had gained not one single advantage, and the grip of 
the Entente fleets on the highway of the sea was made 
more secure than ever. 

But of all the tasks with which the Entente navies 
were entrusted, perhaps the most difficult proved to be 
that of tackling the U-boats, with their policy of unre- 
stricted submarine warfare. Unprepared for such a 
breach of all law, human and divine, the defenders set 
themselves earnestly and assiduously to the solving of 
218 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR — II 

the problems involved. Everything had to be created 
to deal with the as yet unknown potentialities of under- 
sea warfare. Rut, by and by, the menace was held. 
Had this not been the case, it is possible that Germany 
might have won the war. The losses of the Entente 
were great ; but processions of food-ships and of trans- 
ports moved steadily and continuously across the oceans 
and the seas until the end. 

The war has often been referred to as the Armageddon 
of Biblical prophecy, and its magnitude justifies the 
name. During its course Spain only of all the notable 
Powers of Europe maintained neutrality, and the small 
nationalities which were not actually engaged in the 
vast military operations suffered bitterly. Besides the 
United States, many of the American republics threw 
in their lot with what they recognized to be the sacred 
cause of freedom, and for the first time in the history 
of mankind the civilized world became one vast factory 
for the supply of munitions and food for the belligerents. 
In particular, Great Britain, Germany, and the United 
States devoted the whole energy of their non-combatant 
populations to the task ; long before their entry into the 
war the American people were sustaining the Allies with 
all their vigor and organizing abilities, and the finances 
of the latter were preserved from shipwreck by the 
vast loans raised with enthusiasm in the United 
States. It has been computed by M. Klotz, French 
Minister of Finance, that the total cost to the world 
of the war was not less than two hundred millions of 
dollars. 

Another remarkable feature of the war was the inven- 
tions which added new terror to an ancient scourge. 
Submarines and aircraft had already become practical, 
but they were soon developed into weapons of alarming 
efficiency. German U-boats sank between seven and 
eight millions of tons of British shipping alone ; the air- 
raids over London and Paris struck terror into the 

219 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

hearts of non-combatants far from the battle fronts, 
and during the last two years of the war nearly seven 
thousand German aircraft were destroyed or brought 
down on the western front. 

Perhaps the greatest surprise of the war was the 
British tanks, which affected the morale of the German 
troops to an extraordinary degree. Other outstanding 
inventions were depth-charges, which wrought much 
destruction upon the U-boats, and the wire aprons 
suspended from stationary balloons, which proved to 
be among the most effective protections against air- 
raids. 

Over seven million Allied and enemy soldiers were 
killed in battle or died of wounds. It was a grievous 
sacrifice, but the world " could do no other." On the 
one hand was the boasted ' will to conquer ' to the end 
that the world should henceforth be forced to develop 
in a German mould, and on the other was the resolve 
to live as free men along the lines of racial charac- 
teristics proper to every nation. Democracy was 
never so sorely tested, but she emerged triumphantly 
in the end. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Write a short history of the Saloniki Expeditionary 
Force. 

2. Give the chief events on the Austro-Italian frontier 
from the close of 1915 to the end of the war. 

3. Describe the military collapse of Russia, and state the 
social and political results that immediately followed. 

4. What part did Rumania take in the war? 

5. Name the chief events of the Mesopotamian campaign. 

6. Trace the progress of the invasion of Palestine by 
British, Colonial, and Indian troops. 

7. Describe the attack by the Germans on Verdun. 
220 



THE COURSE OF THE WAR— II 

8. What brought the United States of America into the 
war? 

9. What three objectives had the Germans in view when 
they launched their great offensive in March 1918? 

10. When did the Entente begin their counter-offensive, 
and what results did it attain ? 

11. What was the part played bv sea-power in the war? 



221 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

THE history of Europe during the year 1919 is 
practically a history of the Peace Conference, 
which met at Paris early in January, and 
apparently came to an end — though we can- 
not say that it had then finished all its tasks — on 
December 31. 

The Conference consisted of representatives from the 
numerous Allied and Associated Powers who had 
banded themselves together against Germany and her 
adherents ; and — what was a far-reaching change in the 
Constitution of the British Empire — delegates from the 
Dominions and India were allowed to take a prominent 
part in the proceedings. From time to time the mem- 
bers of the Conference met in full, or plenary, sessions. 
But it soon became clear that these plenary sessions 
were not to be permitted to take original action ; they 
were to be used merely for the purpose of confirming 
decisions already arrived at by the representatives of 
the five Great Powers — the United States of America, 
Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan — who thus 
assumed chief control of the proceedings. The Council 
of Ten, however, viz., two representatives from each 
of the aforesaid Great Powers, did not exist long. At 
the end of March it was superseded by the Council of 
Four, but was continued as the Council of Foreign 
Ministers, to whom from time to time were referred 
matters of secondary importance. The four — President 
222 



THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

Wilson for America, M. Clemenceau for France, Mr 
Lloyd George for Great Britain, and Signor Orlando for 
Italy — met daily, and for some months the destinies of 
the world lay in their hands. 

The bulk of the detailed work was done by com- 
mittees. There were committees on the League of 
Nations and Labor, on Responsibilities, on Inter- 
national Control of Waterways, on Reparation, on 
Finance and the Economic Terms, on Belgium, on the 
frontiers of Poland, Serbia, Rumania, and Czecho- 
slovakia, and on numerous other matters ; and it was 
upon reports which they presented to the Supreme 
Council that the final decisions were made ; though some 
of the most important matters were kept by the four 
in their own hands. 

Such, in broad outline, was the machinery by which 
the Peace Conference did its work. But progress was 
neither so rapid nor so smooth as its well-wishers could 
have desired. Indeed the different national interests 
were so conflicting that it was found well-nigh impos- 
sible to reconcile them, and much fierce discussion took 
place between the rival claimants for consideration. 

It was not until the end of May that the most vital 
matter before the Conference, viz., the drafting of the 
German Peace Treaty, was completed. In a somewhat 
amended form, this was duly signed by the contracting 
parties on June 28. It is divided into fifteen Parts, the 
most interesting of which are the following : 

Part 1. The formation of a League of Nations to 
promote international co-operation and to achieve 
international peace and security. These ends are to be 
attained : 

(a) By the acceptance of obligations not to resort 
to war. 

(b) By the prescription of open, just, and honor- 
able relations between nations. 

223 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

(c) By the firm establishment of the understandings 
of international law as the actual rule among 
Governments ; and 

(d) By the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous 
respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of 
organized peoples with one another. 

Part 2. Germany's future boundaries. The chief 
changes are : 

(a) The mines of the Saar Valley handed to France 
as part payment of reparation, and this district put 
under the administration of a Commission for fifteen 
years, with a plebiscite at the end. The Commission 
to be appointed by and responsible to the League of 
Nations. 

(b) Northern Schleswig to go to Denmark should 
a plebiscite so decide. 

(c) Luxemburg to pass from the German sphere 
of influence, including the Customs Union. 

(d) Farther south, the eastern frontier of France 
to be restored to its full limits as it ran before the 
war of 1870, thus once more embracing the whole of 
Lorraine, together with Alsace. 

(e) Polish territory to take in a broad strip in 
Eastern Germany, in order to include Polish 
majorities. 

(/) The inhabitants of a portion of Silesia to 
declare by vote whether they will be joined to Ger- 
many or to Poland. 

(g) The small southwestern extremity of this area 
to be renounced by Germany in favor of the Czecho- 
slovak State. 

Part 4. Germany to renounce in favour of the prin- 
cipal Allied and Associated Powers all her overseas 
possessions. 

Part 5. In order to render possible the initiation of a 
224 



THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

general limitation of the armaments of all nations, 
Germany to undertake a drastic restriction of her mili- 
tary, naval, and air establishments. 

Part 7. William II to be brought to trial, together 
with persons accused by the Allied and Associated 
Powers of having committed acts in violation of the 
laws and customs of war. 

Part 9. The cost of reparation for the loss and 
damage suffered by the Allied and Associated Govern- 
ments and their nationals, as a consequence of the 
aggression of Germany, to be a first charge upon the 
assets and revenues of the German Empire and its 
constituent States. 

Part 11. The aircraft of the Allied and Associated 
Powers to have full liberty of passage and landing over 
and in the territory and territorial waters of Germany, 
and to enjoy the same privileges as German aircraft, 
particularly in cases of distress by land or sea. 

Part 13. " Whereas the League of Nations has for 
its object the establishment of universal peace, and 
such a peace can be established only if it is based upon 
social justice : 

" And whereas certain conditions of labor exist 
involving such injustice, hardship, and privation to 
large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great 
that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled : 
and an improvement of these conditions is urgently 
required : as, for example, by the regulation of the 
hours of work, including the establishment of a working 
day and week, the regulation of the labor supply, the 
prevention of unemployment, the provision of an 
adequate living wage, the protection of the worker 
against sickness, disease, and injury arising out of his 
p 225 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

employment, the protection of children, young persons, 
and women, provision for old age and injury, protection 
of the interests of workers when employed in countries 
other than their own, recognition of the principle of 
association, the organization of vocational and tech- 
nical education, and other matters : 

" Whereas, also, the failure of any nation to adopt 
humane conditions of labor is an obstacle in the way of 
other nations which desire to improve conditions in 
their own countries : 

" The high contracting parties, moved by sentiments 
of justice and humanity, as well as by the desire to 
secure the permanent peace of the world, agree to the 
following : 

" A permanent organization shall be hereby estab- 
lished for the promotion of the objects set forth above. 

" The original members of the League of Nations 
shall be the original members of this organization, and 
hereafter membership of the League of Nations shall 
carry with it membership of this organization." 

Part 14. As a guarantee for the execution of the 
Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to 
the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads, 
are to be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for 
a period of fifteen years. But if the conditions of the 
Treaty are faithfully carried out by Germany, this 
occupation shall be successively restricted. 

At the close of its main task, viz., the conclusion of 
peace with Germany, the Conference turned its atten- 
tion to other matters that were pressing for settlement. 
First of these tasks was the Austrian Treaty. The 
drafting of this was now speedily finished, and the com- 
pleted document was laid before the Austrian delegates 
on July 20, 1919. But the Austrian delegates objected 
strongly to many of its provisions. For, apparently, 
226 



THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

these had been drawn up on the assumption that it 
would be fair to lay before the Austrians terms which 
were nearly identical with those presented to Germany ; 
and there had been little consideration of the many and 
great differences between this new Austrian State — a 
small and comparatively poor territory, with a popula- 
tion of only six millions — and the old German Empire, 
which continued with little diminution of population or 
material resources. Moreover, the task before the 
Conference was not merely to make a Treaty of Peace 
with Austria, but also to arrange for the entire reor- 
ganization of the dominions of the Habsburgs, the 
empire of many races. On the territorial side, the 
Austrians wished to keep their Adriatic seaboard intact, 
and they demurred at those clauses which assigned Mid- 
Tyrol to the Italians. In spite, however, of Austrian 
objections, the Peace Conference made no changes in 
the proposed territorial rearrangements, though there 
were considerable alterations in the economic and finan- 
cial sections. The Austrian Treaty was eventually 
signed at St Germain on September 4. 

The attention of the Conference was then turned to 
the Balkans. This district, with its different religions, 
its different races, its different national aspirations, and 
its chaotic mingling of populations, had long been per- 
haps the chief storm-centre of European politics ; and 
the attempt to straighten out such a distressing tangle 
of interests by no means met with universal approba- 
tion. Originally it had been determined to assign large 
areas in Thrace to Greece, so that she should have a 
connected portion of territory cutting off Bulgaria from 
the JEgean Sea. But, this course proving unacceptable 
to the United States, at the last moment a compromise 
was made by which, while Bulgaria was required to 
surrender the districts in dispute, their final disposal 
was left for further discussion. The Treaty with Bul- 
garia was signed at the end of November. 

227 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

Now the settlement of the Bulgarian problem was 
involved with that of Turkey, and the difficulties here 
were enormous. At the beginning, the complete disso- 
lution of the Turkish Empire was freely discussed ; and 
it was suggested that the Sultan should be expelled 
from Constantinople, that there should be put in his 
place an international commission reporting to the 
League of Nations, or that a mandate should be 
assigned to some Power. But what Power should 
and would undertake such a task ? There were strong 
objections to assigning it to any European State, and 
America was unwilling to take up the burden. 

Meanwhile, the occupation of Smyrna by the Greeks, 
and of other districts of Asia Minor by the Italians, 
had caused grave discontent among the Mohammedan 
populations ; and the settlement of Syrian affairs 
became a matter of acute controversy. A representa- 
tive of the King of Hedjaz came to Paris to press the 
claim of the Arab nation to the government of all those 
districts of the former Turkish Empire in which they 
formed the predominant element in the population. 
But there were large numbers of Europeans inhabiting 
the towns on the Syrian coast, and it was doubtful if 
these would agree to live under the rule of desert Arabs. 
To find a solution to the Syrian and other problems, it 
was determined to send out a commission, which should 
inquire on the spot. But the commission did not 
start; and, at the close of 1919, Turkish affairs were 
still, as it were, in the melting-pot. 

Up to the end of 1919, it had been impossible to make 
peace with Hungary, and that chiefly because of inter- 
nal disturbances. When Hungary first declared herself 
an independent state, a government was formed with 
Count Karolyi at its head. This, however, came to an 
end in March, and power was assumed by the Bol- 
shevists under Bela Kun. But during the month of 
August Bela Kun made a blunder which proved fatal to 
228 



THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

his rule. He attacked the Rumanians, was defeated, 
and fled the country. 

Elated by their victory, the Rumanians now 
imposed upon the Hungarians terms which were quite 
inconsistent with the terms of the Armistice and the 
policy of the Conference ; and not until an ultimatum 
had been sent them from Paris did they agree to 
moderate their demands. Meanwhile it was of great 
importance to establish a government in Hungary with 
which the Allies could arrange a peace ; eventually this 
difficult task was accomplished. 

Throughout the Conference, Russian affairs were a 
source of serious anxiety. There were no Russian 
representatives at Paris, and it was felt that their 
absence would prove a great obstacle to the settlement 
of a peace both universal and permanent. But what 
representatives should be asked to attend ? Mr Lloyd 
George proposed that the different parties struggling 
for power in Russia should agree to a cessation of hostili- 
ties, and send delegates to a free conference to be held 
on the island of Prinkipo. In this manner, it was 
hoped, they might come to an amicable arrangement 
among themselves. But nothing came of the proposal. 
From time to time other suggestions were made for 
opening negotiations with the Bolshevists, but these 
too came to naught. The Conference showed no fixed 
determination of purpose, and continued to waver 
between the three policies of recognition of the Bol- 
shevists, active support of the anti-Bolshevists, and 
non-intervention in Russian affairs. 

As a result of its year's work the Peace Conference 
achieved much. The boundaries of future Germany 
were settled ; the new States of Poland and Czecho- 
slovakia were constituted ; the change from the king- 
dom of Serbia to the Serb-Croat-Slovene State was 
made ; the republic of Austria was recognized as a 
new element in Europe. But though much was 

229 



HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 

achieved, much still remained to be achieved before 
swords could safely be forged into ploughshares and 
spears into pruning-hooks. 

It is possible to close this outline of modern European 
history with a note of hope. On January 16, 1920, 
the League of Nations held its first sitting. It remains 
for the future to determine whether from this beginning 
shall issue a realization of the ideals to which the League 
owes its birth. " The corporate will of humanity still 
waits to be born through the agency of the League of 
Nations.' , 



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CHILDREN OF THE WORLD 

I SUNSHINE LANDS OF I 
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By LENORE E. MULETS 

\ COLLECTION of four charming little stories about 
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Amerigo travels all over beautiful Italy, seeing many of its | 

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| relation of his experiences. 

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1 Foundation History Series 1 

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I Loyal Citizenship | 

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I CONSERVATION SERIES 1 




Conservation Reader 

By HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS, Ph. D. 

| Lecturer, University of California; Geography Supervisor Berketey | 
| Public Schools 

| A small book bringing out in a simple and interesting manner the I 

| principles of conservation of natural resources has long been wanted , § 

| for there has been little on the subject that could be placed in the hands | 

| of pupils. It is to answer this need that Fairbanks' Conservation | 

| Reader has been prepared. § 

| The book touches upon every phase of conservation, but it deals at = 

= greatest length with saving the soil, the forests, and wild life. It is one | 

| of the author's main purposes to arouse a stronger sentiment for pre- = 

| serving what remains of the forests as well as for extending their areas. | 

| This is because proper forestation will lessen the danger of floods and | 

| of erosion of the soil, and it will encourage the return of the wild crea- | 

| tures that are of so much economic importance and add so much to the | 

| joy of life. 1 

| The matter is presented in an easy narrative style that is calculated to | 

§ arouse the intelligent interest of children. The text is illustrated with | 

E photographs of wild animals, trees, landscapes, and rarely beautiful | 

| birds, printed in colors. The subject is timely and the treatment is | 

| happy throughout. f 
| Conservation Reader should be used as a reader or as a book for 
| regular study in every elementary school in the country. 

Cloth, vi + 216 pages. 

= Price $1.20. = 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

YoNKERS-ON-HlTDSON, New YoRK 

2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 
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I THE AMERICAN SPIRIT [ 

A BASIS FOR WORLD DEMOCRACY 

| _ Edited by | 
| Paul Monroe, Ph.D., LL.D. and Irving E. Miller, Ph.D. 

Columbia University Bellingham Normal School § 

| *Tp HE American Spirit, like the American people, is a | 

1 A composite. The mingled qualities of discoverer, ex- | 

| plorer, colonist, pioneer, frontiersman, and immigrant, | 

I have left a heritage of independence, initiative, dissatis- | 

I faction with existing attainments, a forward look, a con- | 

| fidence in the powers of the common man, and an ideal- | 

| istic faith in his worth and destiny. Self-government, | 

| achieved through patriotic struggle and made secure | 

| through hard experience, confirms the heritage. Democ- | 

1 racy in government, preserved from corruption only by | 

1 constant vigilance and continual practice, goes hand in | 

= hand with democracy in society; the two lead to ideals of | 
1 industrial democracy yet in the process of attainment. 

| Through civil war, ideals of national unity were achieved | 

| and the national destiny was made sure. An enlightened | 

| diplomacy committed the nation to a policy of humanity | 

| and generosity towards the weaker nations, and the war | 

| of 1898 made it clear to the world that that policy would | 

| be upheld at any cost. The crisis of the World War | 

| afforded the supreme test of the American spirit, and in 1 

| that crisis it was not found wanting; the heroism of the i 
I sons was found worthy of the sacrifice of the fathers. 

| How the varied traits of the forefathers have blended to | 

| make the American spirit a basis for world democracy | 

| is briefly told in this volume. = 

Cloth, xv + 336 pages. f 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

yonkers-on-hudson, new york 

| 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago | 

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The First Four Volumes of 

Government Handbooks \ 

A series of college textbooks on government. 
Edited by David P. Barrows and Thomas 
H. Reed, of the University of California 

Government and Politics of France 

By Edward McChesney Sait 

| The only book written in English that describes French government | 

| to the elevation of Deschanel as president and the appointment of the | 

| Millerand cabinet. Lucid in style, with an accurate perspective and | 

| a distinct scholarship. | 

Cloth, xv +478 pages. Illustrated Price $2.60 j 

Evolution of the Dominion of Canada 

By Edward Porritt | 

i This history of the government of Canada since the Confederation is = 

i the most comprehensive and up-to-date handbook on the Dominion I 

I yet published. The author, a leading authority in this field, has = 

| spared no effort in the way of painstaking research to achieve this end. | 

Cloth, xix +540 pages. Illustrated Price $2.60 | 

Government and Politics of Switzerland 
By Robert C. Brooks 

I A description of the organization and functioning of the government I 

| of Switzerland, with a discussion of historical origin and development s 

I and with particular emphasis on the modern political life of the country. § 

Cloth, xvi +430 pages. Illustrated Price $2 .40 | 

Government and Politics of the 
German Empire 

By Fritz-Konrad Kruger 

1 A careful and authoritiative study of the political institutions of the | 

| German Empire, from the point of view of a member of the National = 

| Liberal party of Germany. An added pamphlet brings the text up = 

= to peace times. = 

Cloth, xii +340 pages. Illustrated Price $2.00 | 

Other volumes are in preparation. 
Detailed description of the series sent on request. 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

yon t kers-on-hudson, new york 
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 

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CHILDREN OF THE WORLD | 

I A series that opens up to young readers the studies of | 

| geography and history as living subjects | 

| PAZ AND PABLO— A Story of Two Little Filipinos f 

By Addie F. Mitchell. .Illustrations by Elias Goldberg. | 

95 pages. | 

The two children do all the things which Filipino | 

children do, and their little adventures are so interest- | 

ingly told by a former teacher in the Philippines that | 

boys and girls of this country in grades three to five | 

i will be anxious to know more about the land of Paz | 

| and Pablo. | 

1 SUNSHINE LANDS OF EUROPE 

By Lenore E. Mulcts. Illustrations by Elias Goldberg. | 

| 159 pages. | 

Four charming little stories about Sancho, the Portu- f 

guese lad, and his life on the sea; about little Fernando | 

of Spain, and his visits to famous places of his native | 

land; about Jacques and Odette, the French children 1 

who received such interesting letters from their father | 

who went to the war; and about Amerigo who traveled | 

all over Italy and finally made the long journey to | 

1 America. 1 

Specially drawn maps add greatly to the value of the | 

book. Intended for supplementary reading in grades I 

1 four to six. | 

1 THE ALO MAN — Stories From the Congo 

By Mara L. Pratt-Chadzuick and Louise Lamprey. | 

Illustrated. 170 pages. | 

Folk tales related by a wandering story-teller to the 1 

children of a chief, are interwoven with the everyday | 

experiences of a Congo village. For grades four to f 

| seven. | 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

YoNKERS-ON-HuDSON, NEW YORK 

2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 

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PIONEER LIFE SERIES 



THE WHITE INDIAN BOY 




UNCLE NICK AMONG THE SHOSHONES 

Everybody that knew Uncle Nick Wilson was always begging him 
to tell about the pioneer days in the Northwest. When he was eight 
years old the Wilson family crossed the plains by ox-team. He was 
only twelve when he slipped away from home to travel north with 
a band of Shoshones, with whom he wandered about for two years, 
sharing all the experiences of Indian life. Later, after he had re- 
turned home, he was a pony express rider, he drove a stage on the 
Overland route, and he acted as guide in an expedition against the 
Gosiute Indians. 

A few years ago Uncle Nick was persuaded to write down his recol- 
lections, and Professor Howard N. Driggs helped him to make his 
account into a book that is a true record of pioneer life, with its 
hardships and adventures. 

The White Indian Boy is illustrated with many instructive photo- 
graphs and with drawings of Indian life by F. N. Wilson. 

Single copies of this book are $1.20 postpaid. Discounts are allowed 
when a number of copies are ordered. Send orders to the publishers. 

WORLD BOOK COMPANY 

yonkers-on-hudson, new york 
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 



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